Glenn Beck, Peter Schweizer, and Claire Abernathy dissect critical national issues, contrasting JFK's rigorous 1960s physical standards with modern laxity while exposing Chinese state functionaries purchasing land near U.S. bases and laundering fentanyl funds. Schweizer details Gavin Newsom's veto of anti-foreign land laws, and Abernathy recounts her traumatic detransition after pediatric gender medicine deception, now fueling FTC investigations into child mutilation practices. Together, these segments reveal deepening threats to national security and the urgent need to protect vulnerable children from coercive medical interventions. [Automatically generated summary]
Department of War, cashless bail, Department of Defense versus Department of War.
Stu and I talk about, hmm, really, these presidential standards on being healthy.
I don't, I don't think so.
We went back into the 1960s.
Look what John F. Kennedy's standards were.
Oh my gosh.
I mean, not his standards, but his standards for PE.
Otherwise, his standards are very low.
On PE in iSchool, they were very, very high and like unbelievable.
So, unbelievably so.
We also, I told you a story on the podcast today that I think is really important.
It's a story that comes out of the Carolinas about a young girl who moves to the United States for hope, for safety.
And she's killed on a platform at a station in North Carolina.
And the outcome of this not only tells us what we're really dealing with, but also it's so important that you listen because I tried to give you perspective on what is actually happening all on today's podcast.
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Elite Athlete Push-Up Test00:11:31
You have no idea.
Straight up who you're dealing with.
No, you don't have any idea who you're dealing with here.
I got my DNA test back like 10 years ago.
Okay.
And we all took it because we were looking for, you know, we were looking for things.
And so we all took it.
My DNA tests came back.
And everybody in the family, their test made total sense.
We were like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Then we read mine.
We have to find it.
I have to find it.
See if Tanya even has it.
So we should have it framed.
I swear to you, they mixed me up with somebody else.
Somebody else is like, wait a minute.
Man, I'm this pathetic?
Mine came back and said, you have the muscular structure of something like an elite athlete.
You have the abilities and agility and everything else of an elite athlete.
And I'm like, there's not a chance.
I don't have any of that.
I don't even know if I have muscles.
I have to check once in a while and go, do I have muscles?
Doctor's like, move your leg.
And I'm like, I don't know.
Can I?
I don't.
I don't know.
How do you know?
Just press against my hand on the leg.
I ache.
I don't know.
You know, I don't know how to do that exactly.
So you're sure it said elite athlete and not elephant.
I mean, if they misspelled it, it could have been a smear smudge.
He's having eye problems at the time.
No.
I mean, we read it and I was like, Tanya, I believe that for Tanya.
Maybe they switched because Tanya is really strong.
She'll kick your butt.
She works out every day, all of that.
Me, never, never.
And it kind of makes me wonder when I get to the other side and the Lord went, okay, so what'd you do with your life again?
Because I gave you this incredible body and you wasted it the whole time.
And I'm like, you should have been more clear.
Okay.
You should have been more clear.
I, you know, maybe I could have played basketball, but I tried once and it was embarrassing.
It was embarrassing.
It was like sixth grade and I'll never live.
I don't even want to think about my time on a basketball court.
Okay.
So don't don't start with me.
You should have made it a little clearer when I first started to do stuff.
And I think that's fair.
I think that's a fair argument.
In my fence, in my defense, your honor, God, you should have made it a little more clear.
Yeah.
I mean, if they really wanted us to do this, then the 11th commandment is 50 push-ups and 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups, right?
Like put it in a commandment if you really want us to do it.
You know, you have to be more specific.
We're Americans.
Okay.
So let me give you the top of the list for the JFK presidential fitness test.
Okay.
This is what you had to do in high school, in high school.
34 pull-ups.
Bar dips, 52.
Because I believe I did that a long time.
No, it's not recommended.
Not a bar hop.
Oh, bar dips.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Bar dips, 52.
Handstand push-ups, 50.
What are handset?
Oh, my God.
Handstand.
I can't even stand on my hand.
Is that like I'm doing a handstand and a push-up?
Because that's not happening.
Yeah.
You're not human.
You're balancing yourself on your hands.
Your feet are above your hands on the wall, like a wall, and you're doing.
Oh, so you're balancing yourself.
That makes it a little easier.
Still impossible.
Yeah.
But a little easier.
Impossible.
You could do precisely zero of those.
Right.
Okay.
So you had to do 50 handstand push-ups or 30.
No, sorry, 26 one-armed burpees in 30 seconds.
Is that a one-armed push-up?
No.
So you're bracing yourself like you're about to begin a push-up in a burpee with only one hand arm, which that's not that difficult.
But then you're doing, I think you move your feet towards your hands and then you jump up in the air, basically.
And then you do it repeatedly.
Oh, no, That's ridiculous.
That's a law of gravity, okay?
You're not supposed to violate it.
That's not if it was a recommendation of gravity, maybe jumping would be appropriate, but it's not.
So follow the law.
In 48 seconds, you had to do a 300-yard shuttle.
Now, I've been to the airport.
I think I've done a 30, 300-yard shuttle, but it depends on who's driving.
Right.
You know?
Yeah.
Rope climb.
Try this.
Rope climb.
This is what.
20 feet, hands only sit start.
That's what I remember from the president's physical fitness test.
And I remember looking at that rope and being like, no chance I can get up that thing.
Oh, I just remember looking at that rope thinking, humiliation.
Yeah.
Humiliation is coming my way.
I'll never kiss a girl because that ain't happening.
I'm going to get maybe 10 feet up.
Maybe, maybe.
And you were right for 24 years from that time.
Approximately.
Agility run, 17 seconds.
Extension press-ups.
Yeah, what?
I'm just so tired from reading this.
Extension press-ups.
What's an extension press-up?
Eight inch.
Let's see.
You had to do 100 of those.
An exercise, an exercise for low back pain involving lying on your stomach and pressing your upper body up with your arms while keeping your hips relaxed and down on the mat.
Oh, I could do that.
Eight inches?
I could do the last part of it, relaxed and down on the mat.
I think it's what my doctor says I should be doing.
What?
I can do relaxed and down on the mat.
That part of it, I can do that.
Yeah, I can do that.
I am the only guy.
I took yoga for a while, like three weeks.
My wife was like, yoga, you could do yoga.
Let's just do yoga together.
I did.
And the yoga instructor said to me, because we were doing like, you know, you know, a plank.
Yeah.
And she came, and all I remember is her waking me up and saying, I think you're the only person I've ever, ever taught that fell asleep in yoga.
And I'm like, it's just so relaxing.
Just let me sleep.
Just let me sleep.
That's interesting that you did yoga.
Is there any footage of that?
Is there any video of that we can do?
There's not.
I mean, that would be good for you have to do, you had to do pegboard, five trips of pegboard.
And I think that's when you have the two like pegs.
Yes.
And then you have to take it out and put it up, right?
Yeah.
And climb?
It's a ninja warrior.
This is not.
There's no way.
There's no way.
It's amazing.
Try this one.
You had to do a 45-second handstand.
I've never been able to do a handstand.
Never.
Never.
I've been able to do this.
I'm an elite athlete.
I am an elite athlete.
Try this one.
A man carry.
Five miles.
What?
What do you mean, a man?
Five-mile man carry.
Is a man carry as obvious as it's?
I think it is.
You're carrying.
You got to carry me that man.
You got to carry me that man for five miles.
I'm not sure.
I can't carry any man for any miles.
I mean, if I am a firefighter, count on burning in the house.
You're just going to burn.
You're going to burn up in the house.
Because I can't carry you out.
I could get in there and go, yeah, I'm going to have to leave you.
I'm going to have to leave you here.
Can't help you.
Sorry.
It's also getting really hot in here.
I got to go.
You had to do a five-mile jog, an obstacle course.
You had to swim prone for a mile.
You had to swim underwater for 50 yards.
Any strokes, two minutes.
Deep water front hang float with arms.
What is a deep water front hang float with arms?
Wait, wait, wait.
It's a deep water front hang float with arms and ankles tied for six minutes.
What kind of al-Qaeda PE class was this?
Who has access to who has access to like you're in the middle of the country?
You don't might not have a deep water body nearby.
Are you sure this was their actual test?
This is the actual test.
This was the actual.
What is what is a deep water front hang float with arms and ankles tied for six minutes?
Can you look that up?
Just rock.
A deep water hang float is an aquatic exercise done in a deep end of a pool with the aid of a flotation device, such as a noodle or belt.
In this position, the flotation device supports your upper body while your legs and torso hang freely below you.
The setup, what that can't be what it is.
I mean, I could do that.
That's just a deep end of the pool with a noodle.
It's every weekend.
What are you talking about?
Can you bring a margarita?
Man, I could.
This test is no big deal.
What?
No way.
No way.
Here's the last thing on the test.
A vertical tread in an eight-foot circle for two hours.
No way.
Vertical tread in an eight-foot circle.
So you're in the water and you're treading water in a circle for how many hours?
For two hours?
Two.
This is not.
This is not the test.
I told you this is the top of the test.
I told you this is the top of the test.
So this was for the ones who could do all of the other tests.
This was the top of the test.
The bottom of the test is not that much better.
Here's the entry.
Okay.
Let's see.
Pull-ups 2/6 slash 10.
I don't know what that means.
Push-ups: 16, 24, 32.
Bar dips 4, 8, and 12.
Sit-ups 30, 45, and 60.
Broad jump, 6-foot, 6-6-6, 6-6, and 6-9.
To jump 6 feet?
I didn't even know if that's possible.
That one is possible, Glenn.
Yes, I know it sounds incredible, but yes, that one.
That sounds incredible.
It's possible.
You know, I think we should have the average person Olympics.
I really do.
Oh, I really do.
I mean, I would watch that every time because you see them coming, you know, and you're like, that one's not three feet.
I've given him three feet.
200-yard shuttle.
Agility run.
Rope climb 18 feet.
Hands only.
880 yards in three minutes.
A mile in seven minutes.
Pegboard, six holes, a 50-yard swim.
40, 40, 50-yard swim in 36 seconds.
Man carry 880 yards.
No, thank you.
No, thank you.
Look at what we've gone down.
That's the bottom of it.
And I don't think most Americans could do that.
I couldn't.
Well, I could because I'm an elite.
I have the body of an elite athlete.
Why Americans Can't Do That00:13:08
You, yeah, no.
You could not.
Now, of course, you now, in your, let's just say, and this is supposed to be for a high school kid, right?
So this is the prime of your athletic life.
Could you do some of these things?
Probably.
Go into high school.
Go into any high school and ask them to do this.
There's no way.
And all of the kids would be.
Well, that's kind of what the reaction would have been.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I would have been there too.
And my parents would have said, suck it up.
Just do it.
So nothing's really changed, but that's been the reaction to this proposal, too, of bringing this back, right?
Like the media is covering it.
It's like, it's going to embarrass children.
You know, I mean, I do remember being like, I can't do that.
I'm not going to be able to get to the top of that rope.
That's not happening.
That's, you know, sort of life, right?
Like sometimes you can do things, sometimes you can't do other things, right?
Like that's why you have to learn how to injure yourself.
Right.
You know, how many stairs can I throw myself down to not do serious damage, but enough to get me out of PE?
Yeah, you have to fake an injury.
You have to like learn from LeBron James.
Like, act like you got hit in the eye and fall down and like you were just stabbed over and over again during the athletic competition.
No way.
No way.
And you know what?
Honestly, if we, this is why we're not having sex with each other.
We're not having kids because nobody wants to look at each other.
You're like, oh, leave your clothes on.
Leave your clothes on.
Let me tell you about Patriot Mobile.
Let's say you're buying a burger and you hand the kid your money, right?
And he hands you your bag and then he turns and punches some guy in the face.
And you'd be like, why did you do that?
He says, comes with a burger.
It's part of what you paid for.
Wait, no, I didn't want you to punch somebody in the face.
You're probably not going to go back to that burger joint again, right?
Right?
I mean, who wants their money going to something that you never asked for?
Well, that is exactly what big cell phone companies do.
This is how they operate.
You pay your bill, and then behind the counter, they find causes that you don't support, and they do.
And they hand them a bag of cash.
I mean, you should be thinking, wait a minute, I just wanted a phone plan, not to finance somebody else's leftist agenda.
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Now back to the podcast.
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
One of my good friends, a guy who I just so admired, is Peter Schweitzer or admire.
I still admire him.
He is the president of the Government Accountability Institute.
He's the host of the Drill Down, which is a podcast.
He has written numerous books.
He's an investigative reporter, been on this program a million times, and is always way ahead of the game.
He's brought to my attention some land exchanges that are going on with China here in our own country, exchanges for dollars, and they are still buying up more land and nobody's doing anything about it.
And then there's a story today about the 600,000 Chinese students that Donald Trump is letting come in.
Now, there's got to be more of this story on why he's allowing that.
But I mean, these are people that, if I'm not mistaken, and this is my first question, Peter, aren't these students?
You have to be close to the CCP to be able to travel to the United States, don't you?
You have to be well connected with the Communist Party.
Yeah, that's right, Glenn.
I mean, look, the reason I think that Trump is allowing this to happen is because this is a top priority for Xi, and they're trying to negotiate a whole bunch of things.
But I still think it is a mistake.
And here's why.
There are 600,000 Chinese students that come to the United States.
American students going to China is a trickle.
So this is not about an exchange of ideas.
You know, it's not like junior year abroad in Italy, where you learn more about Italian culture and you remember it the rest of your life.
It's not that at all.
The students that come to the United States are screened for their political views.
Their families are screened for their political views.
Their costs are borne by the Chinese government.
So when they are here, they are functionaries of the Chinese government.
And if they fail to fall in line or do what they're asked, damage can come to their family.
Damage can come to them.
And the entire premise behind the student exchanges going back to the 1980s is that this would make the Chinese elite more like us, right?
They get to know us.
They become friendly.
They become more Americanized.
The vast majority of the hardline aides around President Xi were educated in the United States, primarily at places like Harvard.
So it's not working.
The Chinese leadership is actually more hardline now than it was under Hu Jintao or under Deng Xiaoping.
And they're more Western educated.
So it's not doing what they claimed it was going to do.
So why is he doing this?
I think Trump's doing it because he is trying to secure a series of trade deals with the Chinese.
He's trying to deal with them on the Ukraine-Russia war to Prussia, Russia.
He's got a whole bunch of things on his agenda.
This is a priority for Xi.
I would say one of his.
I understand that, but why would it be a priority for Xi?
I mean, he gets 600,000 spies here in the United States.
Yes, that's correct.
And so here's what we know.
We know the Chinese students coming to the United States have engaged in espionage.
And by the way, they're not coming here to study comparative literature or sociology.
The vast, vast, vast majority, over 90%, are in the hard sciences.
So it is stealing our secrets.
We also know, by the way, that the fentanyl trade in the United States, as we've talked about before, the Chinese are intimately involved in that.
A key component of the money laundering is Chinese students in the United States who are taking suitcases full of cash to Chinese state-owned banks.
This is well documented.
So there is a component to it there.
There's also a political component to it.
Chinese students in the United States have done everything from shout down speakers on college campuses that are critical of China.
There have been reports in California of Chinese students being bussed to places like San Francisco to engage in counter protests when people are concerned about human rights in Tibet.
When President Xi, remember, visited San Francisco, there were thousands of Chinese students bused in there to organize pro-Zhi rallies.
So there's also a political force component to this.
Wasn't there not two students or were they just scientists?
Just recently, they were trying to bring in really dangerous stuff and we caught them, but twice we caught them.
That just happened a couple of months ago.
Do you remember that story, Peter?
Yes, that's exactly right.
And so, yeah, these were scientists, but these are scientists that oftentimes are educated in the West.
They take on research lab positions at American universities like the University of Michigan, as in this particular case.
And so they sometimes bring in dangerous things.
There was a report in Canada of Chinese students that were bringing in pathogens related to COVID back in 2019, widely reported in Canada.
So it's an enormous problem, and it's not really something that we are focused on.
Again, we are teaching, we are treating them as if they're German exchange students or Americans studying in Italy.
That is not how China views this.
They view this as a component and an extension of the state, and the students need to fall in line.
And if they don't, they're going to suffer serious consequences.
Donald Trump is so strategic, and nothing he does is without several things down the line.
He's usually playing 3D chess.
He's way ahead of everybody else.
I cannot imagine what we're getting out of this that would balance this in our favor, but we'll have to see.
Is anything being done on the Chinese buying up land?
I know you're on a big story now about how much land is being purchased up in the Northeast that is extraordinarily dangerous.
Yeah, so we're working on a report right now.
One of our top researchers picked 20 military bases at random in the United States, and he wanted to look at land records and say, of those 20 military installations, how many have Chinese-owned land that is just adjacent to those military bases?
The answer, Glenn, is all 20.
So this is a massive problem.
Land purchase is not regulated at the national level in the United States.
They not necessarily should be.
It's done at the state level.
And certain states like Florida and others have worked hard to pass legislation in this area.
The problem is you have states like California, where there was legislation passed in the state Senate and the state assembly on a bipartisan basis that said foreign hostile governments, it didn't even say individuals, just foreign hostile governments cannot buy land in California.
Gavin Newso actually Newsom actually vetoed that bill.
So the problem is, yeah, it was that narrowly written, bipartisan support.
Gavin Newsom vetoed that bill.
And I think part of the reason, frankly, is he's involved in the wine business.
He has land, vineyards in the wine area.
And Chinese state companies have been buying up vineyards in Napa Valley.
So it probably would have affected the valuations of his property.
That's, I think, one of the motivations.
And as we've talked about before, he has a, let's say, long history of association with people involved in the United Front groups and, frankly, people involved with Chinese organized crime.
So the land issue is not going anywhere.
It's a major problem.
Peter, if I'm just looking at this on the surface, I immediately think back to what Ukraine did to Russia with the drones, where they were in these trucks.
They were right outside the military base and they destroyed things that we couldn't, we in our wildest dreams couldn't have destroyed just a few years ago.
And it was because of drones.
And it was a whole new line of attack.
Everybody knows that China is the leader in drone technology.
I mean, they are just way ahead of everybody.
If you have a drone and it's not, what is it, DGI, DJI, it's not the best.
It's all coming from China.
If you have property all around the United States, all adjacent to our military bases, that is a direct threat to our national security.
I mean, you could have a barn full of those drones or a truck full of those drones, and you could take everything out on those military bases quickly, and America wouldn't have any time to respond.
Is it deeper than that on concerns?
Well, I think, yeah, I think that's the main one is right, the ability not only to cause kinetic damage, as the Ukrainians have shown, by you've flown drones and you blow things up.
And look, even our most secure military bases are not going to be able to defend against attack like that.
You have the additional problem that you could do something more stealthy.
You could take drones with pathogens, with poisons, and introduce them into a military installation.
So, yeah, it's a massive, massive problem.
And the notion that we can't even limit the Chinese government or government state-owned companies from buying real estate, that that somehow is a violation of some constitutional right, as if the Chinese government has constitutional rights in the United States, is patently absurd.
So this is something we've got to continue to address.
We're going to keep exposing it.
You've been on the front lines of it, Glenn.
And it's one of those things I think that people innately understand.
When you think about currency flows, when you think about money laundering, it gets complicated.
This is very real and basic and understandable.
Yeah.
Peter, as always, thank you very much.
Thanks for your hard work.
We'll talk again.
Peter Schweiser.
Thanks, William.
This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
All right.
Welcome to the program, Claire.
Protecting Mom From Heartbreak00:14:05
How are you?
Hello.
I'm doing well.
How are you?
I am.
I'm really good.
I watched your video, and the story of you and your mom is so unbelievably compelling.
And especially since, I mean, I'm a father of four, and, you know, I have children.
My children have told me all kinds of things.
And it is so hard as a parent, especially at this time when everything is so confused.
And all of the experts are saying, no, your kid's going to kill themselves.
It is what your mom went through, let alone what you went through, but what your mom went through is just, I think, so universal to some degree or another.
And I want to thank you for coming on and telling your story.
Can you start it at 14?
What happened?
I can.
Yeah.
Well, it'd be better to start a little earlier.
I started identifying as trans when I was 12 years old following a sexual assault and some pretty severe bullying that I was experiencing at school.
And adopting this identity gave me, well, one, it gave me the ability to pretend to be a new person, someone that this didn't happen to.
And it also gave me an entire social network, a whole friend group of other kids who felt similarly to the way I did.
And I fell into this social group and started seeing therapists recommended by the people in the support groups that we were going to.
And they made my parents feel like abusers for being skeptical, for wanting to take pause before making irreparable changes to their child's body.
Did anyone say, any doctor say, hang on, we should look at the abuse.
We should, I mean, this might be something that is tied to the abuse and to those experiences.
Did anybody say that and take that seriously?
No one.
No one.
My mom asked about the abuse, the bullying, all these things that I'd gone through, disordered eating.
And she was told in no uncertain terms, no, that does not make a child think that they're trans.
That has nothing to do with that.
And these are doctors like at Cook Children's Hospital in Dallas, a fantastic children's hospital.
So they have credibility with parents, right?
One of the most well-funded children's hospitals in the nation, yes.
Interesting way of verifying what I said.
The most well-funded.
Okay, so at 14, you were put on testosterone, and then like six months later, they're talking about surgery?
Yeah, no.
I started testosterone in November of 2018, and by January, I was approved for surgery.
It didn't happen until June, but that was just because we wanted to wait until the summer between my eighth and ninth grade years.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
That's pretty young.
You're not legal to do anything at that point.
Right.
I couldn't get a learner's permit.
So what did they tell you about the surgery and what didn't they tell you about the surgery?
Well, they told me that I was transgender, that I had gender dysphoria, and that the only effective treatment for gender dysphoria was chemical and surgical intervention.
That if I didn't go through with this, the most likely outcome was suicide.
That's what they told my parents right in front of me.
And they didn't tell me that they would be performing a drains-free mastectomy on me, meaning there was a significantly higher risk of fluid buildup and after rejection as a result, which did end up happening.
They didn't tell me that it would permanently take away my ability to breastfeed.
They didn't tell me that the majority of kids who look to pursue this end up growing out of it.
There was a lot of things that I wasn't told.
So, I mean, but you weren't told like serious, like, you know, pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence and anything.
I mean, I see commercials on TV for, you know, drugs, and they go into 45 seconds of all of the things that could possibly happen to you.
They weren't required to tell you these things?
No, they were required.
They just didn't.
They just didn't do it.
FEC and the DOJ are investigating now.
They're still doing it, aren't they?
The doctor who did it to me is currently being sued by the Attorney General of Texas for continuing to do it after it was banned.
So when did you know?
I heard you talk about how when, you know, the double mastectomy, the bandages came off and you cried and everybody thought there were tears of joy, but you weren't so sure.
What was like, when did you start going, uh-oh, uh-oh, what have I done?
There was always a feeling of sadness surrounding my chest, but the narrative that they tell you in the trans community is that everyone kind of feels bad after surgery.
It's post-op depression, is what they call it.
And that I believed that it was just post-op depression for around a year until what actually happened was a girl on my high school's volunteering got a breast reduction.
And I learned what a breast reduction was from that and realized that a complete mastectomy was not the only option that was available to me, that things were hidden from me.
And that's when things started, tides started changing for me.
So when did you start trying to speak out?
Because they silenced you immediately, right?
They deleted my reviews off of my surgeons' websites.
But I started posting on the internet in like 2021 about what happened to me, but I wasn't fully woken up to the reality of the situation until last December.
That's when I had my first public event.
And what did you wake up to?
That we're having children, that there's no such thing as a trans child and no one is born in the wrong body.
that become your true self by cutting off pieces of yourself.
You in your story said that at one point you started wearing like a padded bra and you didn't want your mom to know about it.
And I thought it was heartbreaking how you were protecting your mom.
And maybe you didn't know it at the time.
But can you go through that part of the story?
Yeah.
So shortly after I had the realization, after I learned what a breast reduction was, I started, I got curious about women's fashion.
Again, I started wanting to be seen as a girl again.
And so I started wearing padded bras in secret, and I would hide them under my mattress whenever I got home from school.
And one day, my mom found one of these padded bras, and she asked me if she had made a mistake, basically, if all of this had been for nothing.
And not if you made a mistake, but if she had made the mistake.
Yes.
Well, I mean, I was a child, and we all knew that I was a child, and that this was ultimately not my decision.
It was there were many medical professionals and guardians who had to sign off on this.
But yeah, she asked her.
She asked if all of this had been a mistake, and I got really defensive and upset.
And I told her that I lashed out at her, and I told her that this was why I didn't tell her that I knew she was going to overreact and make it a big deal.
But it was a big deal, and that's why she made it one.
And no, I didn't tell her that I regretted my transition.
I didn't tell her that I was detransitioning until I decided to get breast implants when I was 18.
When you're how old?
18.
18.
And that's when you told your mom when you were sitting in the meeting for reconstructive surgery, right?
Yes.
Or going to the meeting.
How's your mom doing?
She's doing okay.
We both live with a lot of pain and a lot of regret.
And we talk about it a lot.
There's a lot to unpack, and there's a lot of wounds that will never really fully be healed.
But she loves me.
And I've never questioned that.
She did this because she loves me.
And she thought she was saving my life.
So you can understand how parents are just as duped as the 14-year-old?
Yeah.
I mean, when you're sitting in front of a mandated reporter who you've entrusted with your child's life, and they're telling you that you're killing them, that your child is cutting themselves and starving themselves because you won't go along with this identity that they've claimed.
It would take a lot of prior knowledge of this issue and a lot of very strong will to be able to just overlook that, to be able to say, no, I know what's best.
So now the FTC is looking into whether the pediatric gender medicine industry is deceiving families, hiding risk, making false claims.
And this could really be a big impact on stopping this nightmare.
What do people do to help?
Well, if you are someone who has been affected by pediatric medical transition, or if you know someone who has, the FTC is taking comments from the public, submissions for people to investigate, essentially.
And if you need any assistance filling out that submission, the LGB Courage Coalition, helping people to submit those forms.
And if you don't, if you're not someone who's affected and you don't know anyone, spreading the word is a great way to help sharing things like the IWF documentary that me and my mom participated because people really believe that this isn't happening.
People need to know.
I want you to, I urge you to go to iwf.org, iwf.org, and read and learn and watch.
And you can go there and you can actually submit a comment directly to the FTC as well and urge them to crack down on the mutilation of our children.
Claire, thank you.
Thank you for being brave enough to share all of this and tell your mom we pray for not only you but also her.