This was my speech before the Nebraska Legislature in support of House Bill 574:
My name is Mario Presents and I’m the Director of Chapters for Gays Against Groomers. We are a coalition of Gay, Bisexual, and Trans people dedicated to the protection of children from LGBTQ ideology in media, education, and medicine. We support legislative bill 574 because it provides the opportunity for children to grow up naturally, and not subject them to untested, controversial, and sometimes disastrous procedures.
Children aged 8-14 are undergoing rapid changes in their body. An immature amygdala coupled with elevated developmental hormones prevents the ability of foresight in teens and our society takes great measures to assure that these impressionable minds are protected. Beer commercials can’t show consumption, movies have a rating system and no one under the age of 18 is allowed into an NC-17 movie, even with a parent. Radical gender ideology is trying to convince rational sane people that a child can choose their gender at the onset of puberty.
Your bill offers protections for those with an identifiable medical condition, which everyone can agree with. I also have a medical condition in my family that presents itself in classic Punnett square fashion. My father worked hard to make sure that our condition didn’t leave us permanently disfigured and 3 out of his 4 boys had the necessary medical procedures. It was never expected or assumed that the State would finance, support, or take care of our medical needs. This is the assumed responsibility of a father and a family who want to see their children grow up into healthy mature adults.
Family support is the most important part of mental health according to psychologists the world over. Perhaps this is why Thailand made parental consent a cornerstone of their gender affirming legislation in 2013; even for those we’d consider adults. Without parental consent those aged 20 and younger are prohibited from receiving gender affirming care. Anyone under the age of 18 is barred from these procedures completely. Adults who truly need this type of medicine are followed closely by endocrinologists and therapists throughout their long term care to avoid rejection of their new identity – which is also included in Thai law.
Never before in history have so many young people been rushed to hormone blockers, chest binders, and double mastectomies as they are now. Children are NOT an experiment, nor will we allow them to become lifelong pharmaceutical dependents. Join history and protect the children of the future by letting them grow up into the healthy adults they are meant to be. Let them grow.
