Durbin Denounces Judiciary Committee Republicans’ Hearing On Transgender Athletes

Durbin Denounces Judiciary Committee Republicans' Hearing On Transgender Athletes

Senate Republicans and Republican witnesses spent hearing attacking the very existence of trans kids instead of addressing critical issues before the Committee's jurisdiction

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, denounced today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on transgender athletes in his opening statement. Durbin noted that he refuses to treat this hearing like a responsible exercise of the Senate Judiciary Committee's authority. And therefore, he will not ask questions and did not call Democratic witnesses.

Key Quotes:

"If you ask the American people, what are the priority issues you hope Congress will address as soon as possible, the issue of this hearing would not be in the top 10, maybe not the top 20."

"People are concerned about the cost of living. They are concerned about the ability to pay for the college education of their kids. They are concerned about their utility bills. They are concerned about their grocery bills. They want to know what we are doing about it. The President has dismissed these concerns and said he doesn't want to talk about affordability."

"If you ask people where we should be focusing if we want to help children and make sure they are protected, I think they would start off by saying ,'how are we going to get these damn cellphones out of their hands.'"

"We took this issue on because young people and their families are being exploited today. The social media firms stonewall and try to keep us from doing anything. But we have passed several major bills on a bipartisan basis in this Committee to protect children from the harms of these social media platforms. But for some reason, the bills never move on the floor. And the control of floor traffic is in the hands of the Republican Leader."

"We had a hearing when I was Chair several years ago, and the hearing invited the CEOs of the major companies. We had the CEOs from Meta, [Discord, X,] TikTok, and Snap… why aren't those CEOs back again? … it is still a threat to our families and our children. Instead, we are talking about this issue."

"What Republican Senator Curtis has proposed is that we have a hearing on the lavish wedding gifts given to Donald Trump Jr. at his recent marriage on some island somewhere. The donor of those gifts was a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin."

"Now the argument that we don't have time, we are too busy, belies the fact that as soon as we finish this session, which could be as soon as this week, we will be gone for six weeks… Certainly in that period of time, there's time for a deposition or hearing on this issue of corruption at the highest levels of our government."

"If Republicans actually wanted to stand up for women in sports, and I do, then they should listen to more than 400 athletes who sent an open letter to the NCAA Board of Governors. Let me read from it: 'Although trans exclusionary efforts claim to 'protect women's sports,' in reality, they fail to address any of the real, documented threats to women in sports, namely unequal pay, failure to uphold Title IX, rampant sexual abuse and harassment of women and girl athletes, and a lack of equal resources for men's and women's teams.'"

"If we are going to have a constructive conversation about women's sports, then we must demand honesty and compassion. Anything less is a disservice-including categorically treating every trans athlete, no matter their age or level of competition, as a threat to women's sports."

"Research from the Trevor Project found that 'LGBTQ+ young people are too often placed at higher risk for suicide not because of who they are, but as a result of how they are mistreated and stigmatized.' This Committee should not participate in that marginalization of any children in this country."

"For these reasons, I refuse to treat this hearing like a responsible exercise of this Committee. I will not ask questions, and the minority did not call any witnesses."

Video of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin's opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

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