An Arkansas pharmacist who introduced herself as a “trans female” during a televised hearing on anti-transgender legislation was asked by a Republican state Senator about her genitals.
“Do you have a penis?” Senator Matt McKee (photo) asked the woman as he began his questioning. The room erupted in anger and the woman, taken aback, paused before replying, “That’s horrible.”
Sen. Mckee did not apologize, but rather blamed the pharmacist as he falsely said, “You’re the one that brought that into the discussion.”
The legislation would allow people who had any form of gender-affirming medical care as a minor, from hormone blockers to surgery, to sue their physician, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports. The bill is so extensive it allows not only the person who received medical care but also their “representative” to sue for up to 30 years from the time they reached 18 years of age.
The bill’s lead sponsor, GOP state Sen. Gary Stubblefield, “said his bill is needed to protect children from ‘gender transition procedures’ including puberty blockers and reassignment surgeries, which he characterized as ‘chemical castration’ and ‘mutilation.'”
The bill, officially the “Protecting Minors From Medical Malpractice Act Of 2023,” was passed by the committee.
On social media anger was palpable.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas tweeted, “Immediately following that disgraceful question, the lead Republican sponsor said gender affirming care was a ‘TikTok plot from Communist China.'”
“Absolutely sickening,” tweeted Alejandra Caraballo, a Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic who tracks anti-LGBTQ legislation. “Arkansas State senator Matt McKee asked a trans person at a legislative hearing ‘do you have a penis?’ Does this State Senator have any basic human decency?”
Travis Akers, a veteran Naval intelligence officer and political commentator asked, “Why are they so obsessed with what’s in a person’s pants?”
“Arkansas senators insulted, attacked and silenced transgender people and their supporters who’d shown up at the Capitol in hopes of stopping yet another bill targeting LGBTQ+ youth,” during the hearing, The Arkansas Times reported. “Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, all of them white men, compared gender-affirming care to frontal lobotomies and child abuse. They dismissed testimony from doctors and therapists, and suggested lawmakers are the ones who know best when it comes to medical decisions.”
Watch below or at this link.