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Salon
Salon
Lifestyle
Griffin Eckstein

Hayes to Maher: Leave trans kids alone

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes has one simple message for comedian Bill Maher: mind your business. 

Hayes was a guest on Maher's “Real Time" on Friday. While many of Maher's guests are willing to let the host bloviate, Hayes pushed back against Maher's continued insistence that Democrats fighting for trans rights alienated voters.

The reality check from Hayes came after Maher suggested the Democratic Party needed to “reroute themselves,” arguing the party’s message itself was its problem. The MSNBC host poured cold water on the notion that basic freedoms for transgender kids was somehow radical.

“It is a majority message, which is like if some father and mother have health care for their kid lined up who is trans, just stay the f**k out of their business,” Hayes said. “Let them make that decision. That’s their decision to make.”

The anti-woke jokester – whose regular election post-mortems have repeatedly alleged the Democrats the 2024 presidential election by focusing on identity politics – tried to corner Hayes with a GOP talking point.

“I mean, but the argument is whether the child should make the decision,” Maher interjected.

“The child is never making the decision. The parents are always making the decision. Parents consent to medical care,” Hayes rebutted, blowing past Maher’s incorrect claim that California law allows gender-affirming surgeries for minors without parental consent. “We’ve been hearing from parents right now those kids’ medical care has been interrupted.”

The anchor echoed the “mind your business” sentiment in response to Maher’s suggestion that families seeking gender-affirming care were “disfiguring a child.”

“I think they should mind their own business,” Hayes said.

Watch the pair spar below:

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