DNC slams Twitter over DeSantis ad that insinuates Biden is a pedophile

DeSantis War Room, the official rapid response Twitter account for Florida’s Republican Gov. and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, shared a video yesterday that implied President Joe Biden is a pedophile.

The clip contains selectively edited footage from swearing-in ceremonies for senators and their families, events over which Biden presided as vice president during the Obama administration, having previously served in the chamber from 1973 to 2009.

The video also contains audio from a speech in which Biden urged Congress to pass the Equality Act and is heard saying, “LGBTQ Americans, especially children, you’re loved, you’re heard, and this administration has your back.”

In a statement to the Washington Blade, Democratic National Committee Spokesperson Ammar Moussa called out the hypocrisy by Twitter, which recently blocked a North Carolina Democrat’s pro-abortion rights campaign ad.

“It’s telling that Twitter’s new regime is willing to aid desperate campaigns spreading desperate lies but will block campaign videos about protecting women’s reproductive freedom,” Moussa said. “That says everything you need to know.”

Christina Pushaw, a longtime DeSantis aide who runs the governor’s War Room, shared the ad attacking Biden in a tweet calling the president “Creep in Chief.”

Last year, when defending DeSantis’s widely panned “Don’t Say Gay” law, Pushaw said the legislation’s opponents were “groomers” who abuse children – an outrageous smear against the LGBTQ community and its allies.

False, baseless, vile accusations of pedophilia and child sexual abuse have proliferated on the right, as a means of attacking Democrats and LGBTQ people. These conspiratorial ideas are also central to the right-wing QAnon movement.

CHRISTOPHER KANE

AMA strengthens gender affirming care policies

The American Medical Association on Monday voted to strengthen its policies governing access to gender affirming care for transgender and gender diverse individuals.

The group committed to opposing the criminalization of patients for seeking gender affirming care, and of families and healthcare providers for facilitating access to or administering that care.

Additionally, the AMA pledged to work with federal and state legislators and regulators to oppose policies criminalizing these guideline-directed healthcare interventions and to educate the Federation of State Medical Boards on their importance.

The resolution was introduced by the Endocrine Society, which issued a press release Monday celebrating the move: “As political attacks on gender-affirming care escalate, it is the responsibility of the medical community to speak out in support of evidence-based care.”

“Medical decisions should be made by patients, their relatives and health care providers, not politicians,” the Endocrine Society wrote.

The resolution was cosponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Urological Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the American College of Physicians, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality and the AMA’s Medical Student Section.

The Endocrine Society explained the legislative bans on gender affirming care — passed in states in which 30 percent of the nation’s trans and gender-diverse youth now live — are misguided.

“Pediatric gender-affirming care is designed to take a conservative approach,” the group wrote.

“When young children experience feelings that their gender identity does not match the sex recorded at birth, the first course of action is to support the child in exploring their gender identity and to provide mental health support, as needed.”

“Medical intervention is reserved for older adolescents and adults, with treatment plans tailored to the individual and designed to maximize the time teenagers and their families have to make decisions about their transitions.

“Major medical organizations also agree on waiting until an individual has turned 18 or reached the age of majority in their country to undergo gender-affirming genital surgery.”