When asked directly by The Advocate about Trump's lie that children are getting surgeries in schools, Gaetz sidestepped the factual inaccuracies, instead pivoting to a defense of parental rights. He pointed to states like California and Washington, where he argued that parents risk losing their rights if they don't support gender-affirming care for their children. "In places like California and the state of Washington, if a parent doesn't have the right gender-affirming approach to their own children, they're at risk of losing parental rights," Gaetz claimed.
California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill last year that would have made judges consider if a parent affirmed their child's gender identity in issues related to custody or visitation rights. In Washington, also last year, a law passed that protects youth seeking gender-affirming care from having that care taken away by estranged parents.
Gaetz continued by saying, "We don't want to see those policies all over the country. We actually think parents ought to make those decisions about their children," avoiding a direct response to the fact that gender confirmation surgeries are not performed in schools.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, who was also in the spin room, did not hold back in her criticism of Trump's debate performance and the disinformation he spread. "This is a man who has a ton of delusions, a ton of fantastical ideas. It's like he's a walking comment section of the most unhinged conspiracy theory."
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