Lauren Boebert rages at the thought of parents being told to support their trans kids

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) denounced the state of Massachusetts for allegedly taking a step towards jailing parents for not supporting their transgender children, even though that didn’t happen at all. Her statements were part of a larger myth on the right that Democrats and other liberal people want to take people’s children away and force them to transition to another gender.

“A commission in Massachusetts just said that child-abuse laws should include withholding ‘gender-affirming care,'” she tweeted last week. “So, if I don’t want my eleven year old to get his body mutilated, I should be sent to jail for child abuse.”

Related: Lauren Boebert kicked out of “Beetlejuice” musical for “being a tool”

In the security footage, Boebert appears to flip off security as she is escorted out of the venue.

“We need to end this sick thinking NOW before it becomes law in certain states!”

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A commission in Massachusetts just said that child-abuse laws should include withholding “gender-affirming care”.

So, if I don’t want my eleven year old to get his body mutilated, I should be sent to jail for child abuse.

This isn’t the first state to come out with this…

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) September 6, 2023

She was referring to the yearly report from the Massachusetts Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Youth, which is almost 300 pages long and contains numerous policy recommendations that will not necessarily become law.

One of the recommendations is to “Improve Massachusetts child abuse laws to explicitly include the withholding of gender-affirming care for LGBTQ youth.” The Commission explained the recommendation:

With the significant rise in public transphobia across the state, the Commission has serious concerns about the wellbeing of trans and gender expansive youth in the home, and advises that the state examine current laws around child abuse and welfare to ensure that the unique situations faced by LGBTQ youth are being addressed. In particular, the Commission recommends that the state examine the possibility of codifying gender-affirming child welfare protections in state law to better support youth and families.

The recommendation makes no mention of jail time, although it’s unclear how the Commission’s recommendation would function in the context of family law in the state of Massachusetts. LGBTQ Nation reached out to the Commission for comment but they did not respond to the request before the time of publication.

But Boebert’s comment gets several other facts wrong. First, “mutilation” does not describe gender-affirming care. Also, 11-year-old trans kids don’t get gender-affirming genital surgery because it is not performed on transgender minors, much less pre-teens.

Boebert says that Massachusetts – which has not passed any laws yet based on the Commission’s recommendation – “isn’t the first state to come out with this craziness,” which is probably a reference to California’s A.B. 957, which many on the right have said is the state’s attempt to take transgender kids away from their transphobic parents. In reality, A.B. 957 only instructs judges in custody cases to weigh support for their transgender child’s identity as one of many factors used to determine custody.

The bill “does not announce any bright line rules forbidding the judge to award custody to a denying parent or mandating that the judge award a child to an affirming parent,” University of Southern California family law professor Scott Altman told ABC News.

Earlier this year, audio from a 911 call made by one of Boebert’s sons accusing his father, Jayson Boebert, of physically abusing him was made public. The crying child could be heard saying that his father was “throwing me around.”

The son called 911 back and took back what he said several minutes later, and Boebert took the phone from him to tell the 911 dispatcher that nothing had happened.

“Hi, I’m the mom,” she said. “OK. There was an argument over dinner. I understand you guys got to come and talk to them. I’m down at our second location with [our son] getting ready for an event.”

Her son “doesn’t need help,” she told the dispatcher. Jayson and Lauren Boebert both deny that any physical abuse occurred that day.