(LifeSiteNews) — Former Obama White House chief of staff and ex-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel dissented from some aspects of transgender ideology in a recent interview, but said minors should ultimately be able to “transition” as long as their parents are involved in the decision.
On July 21, podcaster Megyn Kelly published an interview with Emanuel, whom she hailed as an “actual centrist” within the Democrat Party. He told her that he was opposed to boys competing in girls’ sports and putting males in female prisons and that a man cannot become a woman. When asked why “more people in your party” do not say the same, Emanuel quipped, “because I’m now going to go into a witness protection plan.”
However, he was more ambivalent on the subject of minors receiving puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, saying children were too young to decide on their own, but concluding parents should therefore be involved, rather than forbidding it entirely for minors.
“I think parents have to make that decision themselves,” Emanuel said. “I think that is too … a child is too young at 18 to make that decision. It has to be made with a family and that choice. I think before somebody makes a life decision, they have to think twice about that.”
“Yeah, look, I think these are life decisions. And I’m also slightly both … I have two minds, not two minds, but two strains that influence an opinion,” he went on. “One, it is a life decision and a child can’t make that decision. You have to have some moral development, and character, and judgment and foundation for that. Two, parents have to be involved in that, and I think that’s for them to make. I don’t think the public should be in that space.”
Transgender drugs and surgeries have been linked to suicidality, bone density loss, heart diseases, stroke, cancer, and numerous other medical problems. Puberty blockers also cause infertility, as they stop the development of the reproductive system.
While not fully rejecting his party’s investment in gender ideology, Emanuel’s answers indicate some awareness the issue has become a political liability for Democrats.
In March, a SSRS poll commissioned by CNN found that just 29 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Democrats, while only 27 percent of respondents to a new NBC News poll had a favorable view of Democrats. Both findings were driven largely by discontent from within the party.
Part of the reason is that the agenda that has come to define Democrats is firmly out of step with the general electorate, as affirmed by numerous recent polls and election results. Sixty-six percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding for “gender transitions,” according to an April Cygnal poll, and Pew Research finds that 66 percent support limiting athletic participation to actual members of a team’s designated sex, 56 percent support prohibiting “transition” procedures on minors, and 53 percent oppose forcing insurance companies to cover “transition” interventions.
In fact, exit polling by the pro-Democrat firm Blueprint found that the statement “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class” was the third-biggest reason for why overall voters chose not to vote for her, and the number one reason why swing voters rejected her and voted for Donald Trump instead last November.
