Over the weekend, in the final days before the Iowa Caucus, Nikki Haley once again failed to give a solid, clear answer on transgenderism.
During a tele-town hall on Sunday, Haley was asked a simple question about whether or not a man can become a woman. The voter cited Donald Trump's wobbly response to the same question back in September.
"A lot of the stuff that Trump does, you know, and says, really bothers me, and I’m concerned about it," the voter named John prefaced his question. "You know, one thing I saw him do was, he said that, uh, he had trouble answering the question, could a man become a woman? And I’m just wondering what — what your response to that question is?"
Before answering the meat of the question, Haley launched into an obligatory defense of Trump and the presidency. "Look, I mean, I have said, I want to start with Trump and then get to the question. You know, this is a hard truth on my part. I believe Trump was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies," she said. "But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And everybody on this call knows that. And we can’t be a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won’t survive it."
This response wasn't exactly necessary, but fine, she's trying to placate Trump while also justifying her own candidacy. I get it. But, sadly, she completely botched her answer.
"Now, can a man become a woman?" she began. "There’s been a lot that’s been talked about when it comes to all of these roles and all of these issues. I strongly believe that we should not allow any gender change surgeries to anyone before the age of 18. Period. We – kids now can’t get a tattoo until they’re 18. We shouldn’t have them permanently change their body until they’re 18. And that includes puberty blockers; that includes any sort of hormones that would do that."
"After the age of 18, we want to make sure people can live any way they want to live," she added. "I don’t think government needs to be in control of anybody’s life. You go live the way you want to live, you should be free to live the way you want to live, and every – government and everybody else should stay out of your way."
She continued, "But prior to 18, it is an important time, especially when you’re going through your teenage years that can be confusing. I don’t think we should ever in any way have any sort of permanent changes. But after 18, I’m not going to say anything. I think that, you know, you always have to believe in freedom and allowing people to live life the way they want to live, and if that’s how they choose then, you know, I don’t think government should have any say in that."
Had this been a question about minors being given so-called "gender-affirming care," she'd have been spot on. It is absolutely wrong for children to be butchered and have their futures destroyed due to a false belief in junk science. But this wasn't a question about the ethics of butchering children, or whether a legal adult has the right to mutilate their body, this was a question about the fundamental truth of human biology. Can a man become a woman? The correct answer is "No."
That's all she had to say.
Her failure to answer this simple question is troubling on so many levels. It's great that she now says she opposes mutilating children (an issue she previously gave a shoddy answer to), but if she can't testify to the indisputable truth that men can't become women and vice versa, then she is still legitimizing the concept of transgenderism. If she can't say "no" to this simple question, she gives credence to the whole preferred pronoun nonsense and men playing on women's sports teams or using their private facilities.
And the worst part is that the question was set up for her to correct the mistake that Trump made. It was a softball question that should have been easy for her to get right.
