Three Cheers for Sen. Mike Braun

While questioning Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recently, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun said this: “I think the government shouldn’t be pushing kids toward irreversible sex change therapy. We’re moving into territory we’ve never been in as a government. These kids are having a hard time and we should be focusing more on mental health and not surgeries for kids that are totally irreversible. You’re promoting things that are out of sync with most of America and I think it would be wise to back up a little bit.”

Three cheers for the junior Indiana senator.

Let’s be clear. I’m not a big fan of Mike Braun. Not a hater either. He survived a pretty ugly 2018 race with Todd Rokita and Luke Messer. Some called it the nastiest and most expensive senate primary of all time, and that’s saying something. Some of Braun’s ads weren’t as clean and professional as I’d like. But hey, his campaign didn’t ask me, so what do I know? What I do like about Braun is he’s a business guy. He understands bottom lines and the fact that businesses should bring in more money than they spend (what a novel concept MoCo politicians!). He seems to be applying sound economic principles and even sounder common sense to government.

I like that a lot.

But when it comes to this topic, I simply could not agree with Braun more.

According to a document* entitled “Gender-Affirming Care and Young People” put out by the Office of Population Affairs, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, “for transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, early gender-affirming care is crucial to overall health and well-being as it allows the child or adolescent to focus on social transitions and can increase their confidence while navigating the healthcare systems.”

I wish I was making this up.

Our federal government is actually talking about children – typically defined as little folks who haven’t reached the age of puberty yet – and care that can involve drugs to help block puberty, hormone therapy and even gender-affirming surgeries. Oh, this can include adolescents, too.

Those little bigger folks who have gone through puberty but haven’t reached adulthood yet.

You know, the same young people our government deems too young to vote, smoke or drink.

Yet that same government thinks they have the maturity to make momentous decisions on what sex they are or are not.

How is this not criminal?

Look, we as a society can agree to disagree on sexual mores, stances and tendencies. I have my beliefs, you have yours. That’s what a free society is all about. Braun says the HHS folks are out of sync with most of America. I agree with that, but others don’t. Fine. I hope we haven’t completely lost the ability to disagree and still respect each other.

But when it comes to kids, especially the really young ones, can’t we all agree that there are limits? Can’t we all agree that there are boundary lines? Can’t we leave them out of the argument and protect them from all this until they really are old enough to make their own decisions wisely and maturely?

Our government, the same one that came up with this vile and obscene stance, says we absolutely can when it comes to the aforementioned topics like drinking, smoking, gambling and serving in the military. The Health and Human Services director apparently thinks different.

I pray we all prove him wrong.

*Want to see the document for yourself. Go to https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2022-03/gender-affirming-care-young-people-march-2022.pdf

– Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].