Trans Activist Blasts Trump Administration For Pushing Anti-Trans Laws to ‘Distract’ From Epstein Files: ‘Political Scapegoat’

A transgender activist accused the Trump administration of focusing on anti-trans policies to distract from the Epstein files, among other MAGA issues, during an appearance on CNN on Saturday.

“Republicans on multiple fronts this week seeking to limit access to gender affirming care for transgender youth,” said CNN host Erica Hill. “The GOP controlled House passing two bills, one to block Medicaid funds from being used for gender affirming care for minors, another to criminalize the act of providing that care for doctors and hospitals.”

In addition, she said, “The Trump administration also announcing new proposed rules to ban hospitals from participating in Medicare and Medicaid if they provide gender affirming care for people under 18.”

Harley Walker, a transgender rights advocate, claimed it was no mystery why the administration was focusing in on transgender youth at the same time the issue of the Epstein files was reaching a crescendo.

“I think that, you know, Republican politicians see the transgender community as a way for them to easily get a cultural ideological divide on Democrats and divide Americans on such a small sensitive issue to distract from other issues,” Walker said. “Like I said previously, from rising healthcare costs, from, you know, the Epstein files that we’re talking about just earlier, I think we’re being used as a political scapegoat to further their agenda.”

Walker called Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stance against gender-affirming care, “laughable.”

“Whenever you pass laws like the bills that were passed in the House, whenever you pass anti-transgender legislation in the state senate, that’s whenever you see a huge mental health toll on transgender Americans,” Walker said. “That’s when you see a rise in suicide rates. That’s when you see these horrible mental health outcomes versus when transgender youth have access to this lifesaving care; You see better mental health. You see overall transgender youth being happier and healthier, et cetera. So, I think it’s the exact opposite of the way the secretary is framing it.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.