The corporate media and elected Democrats have lauded Vice President Kamala Harris as a champion for women’s rights. But her record of extremism in pushing transgender ideology tells a different story.
According to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, there has been “no daylight” between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden on matters of policy over the past four years. “She’s going to build. Build on the successes that they’ve had,” Jean-Pierre added.
Those “successes” apparently include actions like the administration’s gutting of Title IX to appease transgender activists, a policy which is an utter disaster for women and girls. Title IX has been a cornerstone of women’s rights in education since its passage in 1972, ensuring that women and girls have equal opportunities in academics and athletics.
The Biden administration’s reinterpretation of this law to encompass “gender identity”—an effort Kamala Harris has vocally supported—marks a dramatic departure from its original intent. Under this new framework, federally funded schools are required to abide by a student’s “gender identity” rather than biological sex. As a result, males who identify as female are permitted to use women’s bathrooms and live in women’s dormitories at colleges and universities.
Although these changes do not specifically address athletes, the Biden administration also reportedly had a rule ready to force schools to allow males to compete in women’s sports, but chose to delay issuing it to avoid voter backlash in an election year. All signs point to such a regulation being a top priority for Harris if she wins the White House.
These actions not only undermine the fairness of women’s sports by paving the way for allowing those with inherent physical advantages to compete against biological women, they also threaten the safety and privacy of women in spaces previously reserved for them. By allowing individuals to self-identify their gender, the administration effectively reduces womanhood to a mere declaration rather than a biological reality.
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the administration’s Title IX changes in states that previously had laws in place preventing men from accessing women’s spaces. But women and girls in every state should shudder at the thought of relying on the courts to protect their sports and their spaces from a president more committed to ideology than biology and basic common sense.
The Biden-Harris administration has also replaced the word “mother” with “birthing person” in official government documents. The move rightly earned mockery from both sides of the political aisle, but Americans shouldn’t miss the fact that this was an intentional effort to strip women of their special status as mothers. Adding insult to injury, earlier this year the administration published guidance for how to treat “menstruators” in the workplace.
Perhaps even more alarming than the reinterpretation of Title IX and the full erasure of the term “woman” is the Biden administration’s endorsement of cross-sex hormones and even gender reassignment surgeries for minors, a stance that Harris has unequivocally supported. In 2022, the Biden Department of Health and Human Services released guidance on “gender-affirming care,” which includes “social transitioning,” puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and even surgery for children and adolescents. This guidance promotes these interventions as “necessary” and “life-saving,” despite the lack of long-term studies to support these claims and substantial evidence to the contrary.
The administration’s guidelines do not set a specific age limit for these interventions, meaning that young children could undergo irreversible surgeries such as mastectomies or hysterectomies. These procedures often lead to sterility, loss of sexual function, and other serious health complications, threatening the ability of girls and boys to grow up to become healthy adults.
There is perhaps no greater threat to young girls in the United States today than the fact that the federal government now endorses policies which would result in them being unable to breastfeed their children or bear children at all if they are confused about their gender as an adolescent.
Notably, while the Biden-Harris administration pushes forward with these policies, the United Kingdom has banned the use of puberty blockers for minors outside of clinical trials, citing a lack of evidence for their efficacy and concerns about potential harm. Sweden and France have also moved to restrict access to transgender surgeries and treatments for minors, acknowledging the serious ethical and medical questions involved.
This divergence in approach highlights the recklessness of the Biden-Harris administration’s stance. While European nations exercise caution, the U.S. under Harris’s influence is determined to rush forward with a radical agenda that many experts and advocates warn could lead to significant harm, particularly for vulnerable children and teenagers.
Unsurprisingly, radical left-wing organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and Advocates for Transgender Equality have all endorsed Harris, praising her commitment to “advancing transgender rights.” These groups have been instrumental in pushing for policies that allow for gender self-identification, the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports, and the availability of transgender drugs and surgeries for minors.
While the mainstream media will undoubtedly continue to push Harris as a women’s rights hero and trailblazer between now and Election Day, voters should look to Harris’s actual record to see the truth. Harris has proven she is willing to sacrifice the rights and safety of women and girls to appease a fringe minority of far-left activists.
Rewarding her with another four years in office will make the problem even worse.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
