Franklin Graham defends Elon Musk's call to jail parents who sterilize kids

'Young people are suffering the lifelong consequences of drugs that maim body, mind and spirit. ... This madness must stop.'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, April 18, 2023

The Rev. Franklin Graham came to the defense of Twitter CEO Elon Musk who suggested that parents who support sterilizing their children should be jailed. In a response on social media, Graham said it's "shameful" and "evil" for adults to push trans ideology on youth suffering from confusion about their sex.  

“Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life,” Musk wrote on Twitter Friday in response to a tweet reacting to an MSNBC article claiming that “[Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis’ desperation for power is destroying an entire state” because he won't allow parents to “change [the] sex for your child.” 

Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2023

Graham, the CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, who doesn't shy away from speaking out on issues pertaining to religious freedom and human rights, jumped to Musk’s defense in a Facebook post on Monday: 

“Elon Musk spoke out to make a point about the bizarre and dangerous transgender medical treatments being performed on minors, and I appreciate that he isn’t afraid to call it like it is. It’s shameful that any adult would be part of feeding this confusion and pushing children over a cliff that is built on lies from the pit of hell. Some parents, politicians, and so-called professionals are guilty of a masquerade of evil they are falsely calling healthcare. Children and young people are suffering the lifelong consequences of drugs that maim body, mind and spirit. God will judge our nation. This madness must stop.”

Concerns about the harms of genital mutilation — chemical and surgical castration — come as more than a dozen states have passed laws banning the disfiguring procedures for individuals who are younger than 18. These states include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. 

While Texas has not implemented a legislative ban, the state’s Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Commissioner of Family and Protective Services Jaime Masters have classified sex change surgeries as a form of child abuse. Efforts to punish doctors who perform these procedures on minors and label them as child abuse come in response to concerns about their long-term impacts that cannot be reversed.

The American College of Pediatricians has identified some of the potential side effects of puberty blockers, frequently prescribed to youth with gender dysphoria, as “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility.” The American College of Pediatricians has listed some of the long-term impacts of cross-sex hormones prescribed to trans-identified youth as “an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”

These procedures involve the castration of boys and the genital mutilation of girls, as well as the removal of skin and tissue from a girl's forearm or thigh to create a fake, flaccid penis that doesn't function. Girls are also left with scars from an unnecessary double mastectomy or hysterectomy that will last a lifetime. 

DeSantis himself has shared images documenting the scars left behind after a doctor performs a double mastectomy and skim is removed from a girl's forearm. Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner who experienced gender dysphoria as a child, has since shed her temporary discomfort with her biological sex and announced her intention to sue the medical professionals who treated her gender dysphoria by encouraging her to undergo unnecessary body mutilating surgeries late last year. 

In the notice of the intent to sue, Cole described how, despite assurances from her medical providers that “the distress she experienced because of her gender dysphoria would resolve as she transitioned,” she discovered that “her stress always came back worse” following an initial “burst of relief” that followed each phase of transition. She specifically noted that the double mastectomy she received at the age of 15 caused her mental health to deteriorate and she contemplated suicide as a result. 

Public opinion polling shows that a majority of Americans support efforts to ban sex change procedures for minors. A survey conducted by YouGov in conjunction with The Economist earlier this month found that 39% of respondents “strongly approve” of state laws banning parents from providing their children with puberty blockers, while an additional 14% “approve” of such measures.