Biden calls barring  kids' access to puberty blockers, transgender surgeries 'cruel' and 'close to sinful'

President Biden characterized Florida's laws barring chemical and surgical transgender "treatment" for children as "cruel" and "close to sinful" in an interview with Kal Penn on "The Daily Show" Monday.

"What's going on in Florida, as my mother would say, is close to sinful. It's just terrible what they're doing," Biden said.

Biden transitioned into the topic of chemical and surgical treatment for gender-dysphoric children after relating a story about how he arrived at his views on same-sex marriage.

"It's that simple," he said. "It doesn't matter whether it's same-sex or heterosexual couples. They should be able to be married. What is the problem?"

"Transgender kids is a really harder thing," Biden then said.

"It's not like, you know, a kid wakes up one morning and says, 'You know, I've decided I want to become a man or I want to become a woman, or I want to change,'" Biden told Penn.

"I mean, what are they thinking about here?" Biden asks.

Though he was not specific about which law he was referring to, the comment may have been aimed at Florida's recent actions barring minor children from receiving cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and radical surgeries like mastectomies and vaginoplasties.

"They're human beings. They love; they have feelings; they have inclinations that are ...," Biden said, failing to finish his sentence.

"It just, to me, is. I don't know. It's cruel," he added, gesturing for emphasis.

"The way we do it is we make sure we pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage," Biden said, the camera cutting away to Penn, who nodded.

"You mess with that, you're breaking the law, and you're going to be held accountable," Biden said.

The president appeared to suggest that the same sorts of laws that allow same-sex marriage should similarly allow minor children to receive chemical and surgical interventions if they suffer from gender dysphoria.

Florida's Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted to ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender related surgeries in November 2022. In February, the two medical boards closed a loophole that had allowed children who were part of a clinical trial to receive the controversial "treatments," as TheBlaze reported.

Watch the clip below of "The Daily Show's" Kal Penn interviewing President Joe Biden about his views on same-sex marriage and laws related to transgender people.

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