Transgender activist claims 'science is on our side' while pushing Democrats to fight back on the issue
"It's very easy to fight back on trans issues," activist Charlotte Clymer said on Saturday during MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show."
"The science is on our side," Clymer added. "Every credible medical organization has come out and endorsed gender-affirming care and said that the trans military ban is ridiculous and unnecessary… But the more we don't fight back, the more Republicans are going to engage in bad faith and run up a score on Democrats."
Recent studies, however, point to troubling statistics for those who have undergone a sex change operation. A study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found the rates of depression, anxiety, substance-use disorders and tendency to suicide were "significantly higher" among those who had a sex change surgery, assessed two years later.
According to the study, men who had sex-change surgery had depression rates of 25% as opposed to males who did not have surgery (11.5%), and anxiety rates among that group were 12.8% compared to 2.6%. Women who had sex change surgery had depression rates of 22.9% compared to 14.6% in the non-surgical group.
Clymer is an Army veteran and a former press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, whose Substack, "Charlotte's Web Thoughts," covers "Politics, religion, culture, and humor from a Christian trans woman."
The transgender activist is concerned that more Democrats are not being more outspoken on the issue.
"I'm not seeing a lot of fight from Democratic leadership in Congress, and that is a huge mistake," Clymer said. "The problem with this thinking is that we have an open goal. No one's defending it. Why wouldn't Republicans keep kicking at that goal?"
The contrast, the activist added, is with Republicans, who have made the issue a defining part of their platform.
"Only one party is really talking about trans issues. It's the Republican Party," Clymer said. "They've made trans issues one of their central topics in campaigning and the national discourse."
Fang, who interviewed Clymer, said Republicans "fearmonger" on the issue.
"They love to fearmonger. That's their currency," Phang said. "It galvanizes people to vote based on fear, not on facts. I always like to say, don't vote on feelings, vote on facts."
Clymer said if Democrats don't get better with their messaging, it could cost them.
"The more the Democrats ignore this, the more it's going to come back to haunt us in future elections," Clymer said.
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