Everything Donald Trump Got Wrong About Transgender People in Tucson

Donald Trump continues his disinformation campaign about transgender people in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election.

Among the falsehoods the former president told at a rally in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday (Sept. 12) was that students were undergoing sex-reassignment surgery at the school. He also perpetuated the “groomer” conspiracy theory.

Additionally, he falsely accused Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif of being transgender, falsely insinuated that transgender college swimmer Lia Thomas had an unfair advantage during a 2022 competition, and called trans inclusion “insanity.”

So we know he was wrong — or outright lied — about things when he was campaigning for a return to the White House.

‘Children are getting gender confirmation surgeries at school’

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly claimed that students in the US are undergoing sex reassignment surgery during school hours and returning home having undergone “brutal surgery.”

During the rally, Trump said several times that schools had changed the “gender” of children, without – unsurprisingly – providing any evidence for this wild claim.

“Can you imagine your child going to school, they don’t even call you and they change your child’s gender?” he asked.

This is complete nonsense, a total fabrication. There are no reported cases, or any evidence, of children having major surgery at any school anywhere in the world.

Not only that, but gender affirming surgeries are rarely performed on children, let alone by a school nurse. They are only performed under the strict supervision of physicians and are usually for teenagers who are transitioning off hormone therapy. Even then, these procedures almost never involve genital reconstruction.

A study published in USA Today found that only eight percent of gender confirmation surgeries are performed on children between the ages of 12 and 18. There are no known cases involving younger children.

Despite this, at least 26 states have banned transgender health care, including safe and effective treatments to block puberty, almost exclusively for transgender youth.

‘Imane Khelif is a transgender woman and has an advantage in sports’

Algerian boxer Khelif became the target of a disinformation campaign after anti-transgender spokespeople suggested she was a trans woman.

In response to the “acts of severe cyberbullying” she faced, Khelif has filed a cyberbullying lawsuit against right-wing experts including author JK Rowling and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Apparently, Trump didn’t get the memo and lied about Khelif’s gender identity during part of the meeting, saying she was “a man who had transitioned.”

Khelif is neither transgender nor intersex, as some claim.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which defended Khelif’s right to compete in Paris in the summer, said: “This is not a transgender issue. There has been some confusion that it is somehow a man fighting a woman. That is simply not the case, scientifically speaking.

“There is consensus on that. Scientifically speaking, this is not a man fighting a woman.”

Regardless of Khelif’s gender identity, there is no specific research that suggests transgender people have an inherent advantage over cisgender participants in sporting events.

An IOC-backed study has highlighted the “complexity” of transgender inclusion in sport and suggested that some transgender athletes could be disadvantaged by a number of factors.

‘College swimmer Lia Thomas sets Olympic record because she is trans’

Trump is very wrong here. Not only did Lia Thomas not set an Olympic record, she was also not even allowed to compete in this year’s Paris Games.

Thomas’ victory at a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 swimming meet in 2022 was a turning point in the debate over transgender inclusion in sports, with some using it as an opportunity to misgendere the American swimmer and claim she didn’t deserve her victory.

The former president continually misdirected Thomas during the meeting, saying she was “having lunch while the other young ladies were recovering,” which is completely untrue.

“(Thomas) was enjoying a nice lunch while the rest of them were swimming. How degrading to women, right? Degrading. How ridiculous.”

This is wrong on all counts. Not only did Thomas not compete in the Olympics, the record-breaking victory that Trump was likely referring to was not significant enough to allow her to recover faster than the other swimmers.

She also failed to set a new record at the NCAA event where the controversy began. However, fellow swimmer Kate Douglass broke 18 records at the meet.

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