Chris Christie goes soft on trans issues

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has come out against banning sex changes for minors, putting him at odds not just with the conservative base of the GOP, but with a large majority of Americans.

“I don’t think that the government should ever be stepping in to the place of the parents in helping to move their children through a process where those children are confused or concerned about their gender,” Christie said in a CNN interview Sunday. “The fact is that folks who are under the age of eighteen should have parental support, and guidance, and love as they make all the key decisions of their life, and this should not be one that’s excluded by the government in any way.”

Christie instead said that states should require “parental involvement” in gender transitions for children, presumably to mean that children cannot transition without their parents’ permission.

Christie’s position is the latest step in his evolution on the trans issue. In 2015, as governor, Christie joked about California’s bill that allowed children to use a bathroom consistent with their gender identity at school.

“Men go to men’s rooms, women go to women’s rooms and there really shouldn’t be a whole lot of confusion about that — public accommodations. And I don’t think we should be making life more confusing for our children,” Christie said then.

He also vetoed legislation that year that would have made it easier for transgender people to change their gender on birth certificates, declaring that “certain things go beyond the pale.”

Just two years later, Christie signed two bills that matched California’s bathroom policy for transgender youth and directed the New Jersey Department of Education to give schools guidance on other issues related to transgender students, such as use of preferred names and pronouns. The legislation also allowed transgender youth to participate in sports that matched their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

These stances run counter to the policy positions of most Americans, according to recent polling. A Harvard-Harris poll released earlier this month found that 78 percent of voters think puberty blockers and surgical interventions for transgender individuals should only be available to adults. A Gallup poll found that 69 percent of Americans believe transgender people should only play on sports teams that match their biological sex.

Christie’s position on trans youth is not the only one that has raised eyebrows on the 2024 campaign trail.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley gave a puzzling response during a June 5 interview with CBS when asked about how she would respond to a twelve-year-old child that wants to transition.

“I think the law should stay out of it and I think parents should handle it,” Haley said. “This is a job for the parents to handle. And then if that child becomes eighteen, if they want to make more of a permanent change, they can do that. But I think up until then, we see with our teenage kids, they go through a lot during puberty go through a lot of confusion, they go through a lot of anxiety, they go through a lot of pressures.”

The day prior on CNN, Haley reminded Jake Tapper that she did not pursue a bathroom bill in South Carolina because they treated each transgender child on an individual basis and found them a separate restroom. She also said of transgender kids, “Let’s get them the help, the therapy, whatever they need so that they can feel better and not be suicidal.”

A plurality of Americans — 41 percent versus 31 percent — said that they at least somewhat support requiring transgender individuals to use the bathrooms that match their biological sex, according to a Pew Research poll from September 2022. Other polls have similarly found that support for bathroom bills is increasing over time.

The former UN ambassador’s statements left some confused as to whether she supports banning gender transitions for minors, or not. Her spokesperson, Ken Farnaso, later clarified that Haley “supports banning sex change treatments for minors” and confirmed to The Spectator that this includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions.

Meanwhile, former vice president Mike Pence was unequivocal about banning gender transitions for children but sparked ire among some social conservatives due to his interesting interpretation of Christianity in regard to adult sex changes.

In an interview with Jordan Peterson, Pence said, “I’m libertarian enough to to say if you’re an adult, live the way you want to live.”

“I might not agree with the decisions you make but we’ll love you and love our neighbor as ourselves — as my faith requires,” he asserted.

Some of the faithful have argued that conservatives should take a harsher stance against all gender transitions because of a recognition that actually changing sex is biologically impossible — 60 percent of Americans agree that gender cannot be changed — and that biblical teaching would reject the notion that people are born in the wrong body. A majority of Americans even agree that changing one’s gender is “morally wrong”.

All of these candidates have the opportunity to address their stance on the transgender issue, if they choose, at the Road to Majority Conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition this weekend. Pence and Christie addressed the crowd of approximately 3,000 conservatives Friday — and neither opted to do so. Haley will speak Saturday morning.

FFC are not planning to endorse a candidate yet, despite Donald Trump’s keynote address Saturday night. “We won’t officially endorse, nor will we kind of unofficially put our finger on the on the scale. We think of ourselves as matchmakers more than kingmakers,” Tim Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, told The Spectator. “We just try to introduce voters to candidates and candidates to voters.” What Republican primary voters make of candidates who are squishy on the trans kids issue we won’t fully know until next January.