RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s first trans­gen­der sen­a­tor, Jow­elle De Souza, has de­fend­ed Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s crit­i­cism of for­mer US Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s poli­cies, par­tic­u­lar­ly on gen­der re­as­sign­ment surg­eries for chil­dren.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed Biden’s ad­min­is­tra­tion as a “dis­as­ter”, cit­ing con­cerns about chil­dren un­der­go­ing gen­der re­as­sign­ment surgery, bi­o­log­i­cal men us­ing women’s re­strooms, and the pro­mo­tion of drag shows in schools.

Speak­ing to CNC3 News, De Souza said she agreed with Per­sad-Bisses­sar, em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of psy­chi­atric sup­port be­fore chil­dren make life-al­ter­ing de­ci­sions.

“I went through that surgery, and it’s some­thing I was not sure about. Chil­dren should nev­er make such de­ci­sions with­out prop­er psy­chi­atric sup­port,” De Souza said.

She added, “The world is not ready for a third gen­der. Chil­dren at the age of 9, 10, or 7 should not have par­ents de­cid­ing for them. They need to reach an age where psy­chi­a­trists can as­sess them af­ter years of sup­port and de­ter­mine if it’s the right de­ci­sion.”

De Souza said many par­ents in T&T take chil­dren abroad for re­as­sign­ment surgery due to the lack of lo­cal laws. She con­ducts gen­der-re­lat­ed class­es where fam­i­lies dis­cuss these is­sues in a safe space.

“It’s a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion when a child has to nav­i­gate school with a gen­der is­sue. Gen­der con­cerns are glob­al, and we must ad­dress them,” she said, call­ing for a Child Gen­der Af­fairs de­part­ment and more psy­chol­o­gists in schools.

De Souza al­so sup­port­ed for­mer US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, who has said there are on­ly two gen­ders.

“I’ve worked with Trump, and I know he as­so­ciates with many gay and trans­gen­der peo­ple,” the for­mer sen­a­tor not­ed. “He, like me, be­lieves chil­dren should not un­der­go re­as­sign­ment. What hap­pens if they change their minds at 18 or 19?”

In T&T, De Souza said her use of fe­male re­strooms has not caused prob­lems.

“Whether at the Prime Min­is­ter’s res­i­dence or in the Sen­ate,” she said, “I was al­ways wel­comed.”

Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath sup­port­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s crit­i­cism of Biden.

“The Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion fa­cil­i­tat­ed ex­treme po­si­tions. The land­slide vic­to­ry of Pres­i­dent Trump shows the Amer­i­can peo­ple shared that view,” he said.

Padarath urged calm, not­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al safe­guards ex­ist to pro­tect mi­nori­ties.