The Trump administration's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights told a right-wing host that the tragic shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school on Wednesday was caused by gender-affirming care.
Harmeet Dhillon discussed the shooting on the Real America's Voice show "Bolling!" hosted by former Fox News contributor Eric Bolling. Two children were killed during the shooting, and media reports indicate the shooter was a 23-year-old who identified themselves as transgender.
"One of the factors that is not getting discussed is that pumping a child full of drugs that are purported to change their gender identity has numerous side effects, permanent side effects," Dhillon said. "I have represented four young people who have had this done to them, lied to, and manipulated by adults, and are permanently crippled in many ways."
"In this case, it's led to a shooting," Dhillon said.
Dhillon compared the shooting to when right-wing writer Andy Ngo was attacked by Antifa in Portland, Oregon, in 2019. Dhillon represented Ngo in the case, and he won a $300,000 settlement from three defendants in the case.
"Many of them were trans," Dhillon said. "They were young, disaffected people in their early 20s who were lied to by adults, pumped full of drugs, and those drugs have side effects."
Notably, according to Dr. Kareen M. Matouk and Dr. Melina Wald, both of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center/Gender Identity Program, research shows that gender-affirming care "greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents."