EMMONS, VAN LAAR, CHEN at AmFest: 'The ideology of trans is an assault on reality'

On the final day of Turning Point’s Americafest, The Post Millennial Editor-in-Chief Libby Emmons, Turning Point USA contributor Lauren Chen, and RedState Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar took aim at the ideology of trans, from a conservative perspective. 

"There’s a reason that we keep bringing this up, this question of what is a woman and demanding that it be answered honestly, and it’s because the ideology of trans is an assault on reality," said Emmons.

"It redefines existing words like man and woman, mother, father, to contain their opposites and it also makes false promises. And I think that it’s time to end compromise," she added.

Chen said that the thing she finds "frustrating" about the trans activist movement is that "despite the claims that it’s about inclusivity,… ultimately it's women who are getting hurt the most by this."

"It’s women who are being edged out of women’s sports and scholarships, it’s women who are being left vulnerable in locker rooms, and it’s young girls who are now getting things like double mastectomies and being put on hormone blockers disproportionately to young men."

"So it's a cruel irony that ultimately I would say one of the biggest threats to young women is feminism and the very idea of womanhood now we see this female erasure coming from the progressive left," Chen added.

Van Laar said that this movement is trying to "diminish" what "a woman brings to society, to family, and make it devalued such that they are telling little girls like, 'oh if you want to play sports, if you feel like you’re not comfortable in that body, just cut things off, just take hormones."

She continued on to state that while the "war on men" and masculinity has been going on for years, this erasure of women has ramped up since the pandemic and the prominence of women that "really still do have a mama bear instinct."

"They said, 'uh oh, we can't have this, we need to stop this feminine urge to nurture and protect their young.' And what better way to do that than to tell this generation of girls, that it's okay to just deny your biology and we're going to help you out so you can never have children," said Van Laar.

Emmons noted that the attack on mothers came from the Biden administration for the Department of Justice to investigate parents who spoke out at school board meetings.

"And now you have the Biden administration pushing trans all over the place. He actually came out on Trans Day of Visibility and said 'affirm your kids.' He doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about. He doesn’t know what that means, and as he’s like, pressing for the increase and the expansion of the medical industrial complex, a big part of that is the whole trans thing and it promises a miracle cure that is a lie, it doesn’t work," she added.

Chen agreed, noting that this is not a fringe movement, but rather "is coming straight from the Biden administration."

"We need to stand firm in our principles because I feel like the who reason we’ve gotten to this place to begin with is because we’ve been weak on wanting to placate people and to not offend people, to make a fuss," she continued, adding that it’s "shocking" how quickly the number of trans children has risen.

"I think it's also pretty shocking how fast this is all happening, right? Because despite what these activists say, this was not the case where we were talking about trans children maybe five minutes ago, historically speaking, they can try to obfuscate things all they want, but let's face it up until I would say literally five years ago, we were all in agreement about what a woman actually was," she added.

Van Laar said that the age at which this gender ideology is being pushed has gotten "younger and younger," noting one case of a five year old child that started the transition process.

"Both boys and girls, there’s such an uncomfortable time in puberty," she said. "You don't feel comfortable in your body. I experienced that myself as a girl, but being a mom of three boys, I saw them struggling with the changes that their bodies went through. Why don't we normalize accepting puberty as a reality, instead of confirming something that is non-scientific."

"Puberty is not a medical condition that needs to be cured," Emmons added.

Chen called it "predatory" and "evil" for a physician to see a young girl uncomfortable with her growing body and say "You know what? You're right. Your body is wrong. Let's give you surgery."

"It’s important that we question the medical industry and demand accountability from then," Emmons added.

In regard to children being started on their "gender journey" younger and younger, and doctors claiming that kids know their gender identity from birth, Emmons said "we can’t compromise on this anymore."

"When they call you names, who cares? The truth is the truth… reality is reality and we know what it is, and we can’t just capitulate anymore."

Chen noted that there is "gaslighting" happening in regard to the sex changes of children, saying, "they love to say that this isn’t happening, and then when you point out that it is, like it is in so many different hospitals, they will then say, 'well it’s a good thing that it’s happening."

"And you'll see this change in their narrative literally overnight. And I don't think we can underestimate just how widespread this is. I live in Nashville, Tennessee, I moved to Tennessee specifically because I didn't want to have to deal with people trying to trans my kids and then it was uncovered that Vanderbilt hospital is actually doing these awful surgeries on minors," said Chen, warning parent to "be vigilant."

Noting gaslighting made over the years by the left, Van Laar said, "another progression I've seen over the years is they used to say 'well don't make that dolls only for girls, don’t make trucks only for boys, let's just have gender neutrality on things.' But now they're saying 'okay, if you're a little girl, wants to just play football and play with dump trucks, they really must be a boy. Okay, no, why don't we just let kids play with what they want to play with?"

"Just let kids do what they’re gonna do. Just normalize childhood being an innocent time again."

Noting the increasing occurrence of people identifying as transgender or non-binary, Emmons said that you’re expected to just go along with it, but that "our compassion" as women "has been used against us."

"So much of this too is just the reinforcing of gender stereotypes," said Emmons adding that men and women are being redefined by their "social characteristics as opposed to what they really are."

Referencing former Biden administration official Sam Brinton as well as Biden's trans diversity hire Rachel Levine, Chen said, "let’s be real. This is patriarchy, white cis patriarchy with extra steps."

"It's an ideological thing that's being taken advantage of by a medical industry that promises medical miracles with drugs and surgeries that does not actually deliver on the promises that it makes," Emmons added.

"It doesn't matter what drugs you take, no matter what your medical condition is, doesn't matter what surgeries you have. It doesn't matter if you contour your jaw, or remove your ribs, or take a big chunk out of your arm and create a weird sausage with it. It doesn't matter, it does not change you into the opposite sex. There is no way to change you into the opposite sex. And the medical industry is lying when they say that they can do this"