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Sunday, February 23, 2025

T&T’s first transgender senator defends Kamla

by

31 days ago
20250123
Jowelle De Souza speaking during an interview in San Fernando yesterday.

Jowelle De Souza speaking during an interview in San Fernando yesterday.

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA 

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

 

T&T’s first trans­gen­der sen­a­tor Jow­elle De Souza has de­fend­ed Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s con­dem­na­tion of for­mer Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, es­pe­cial­ly re­gard­ing his pol­i­cy of gen­der re­as­sign­ment surg­eries for chil­dren.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar faced back­lash af­ter de­scrib­ing Biden’s ad­min­is­tra­tion as a “dis­as­ter,” cit­ing con­cerns in­clud­ing bi­o­log­i­cal men us­ing women’s re­strooms, drag shows in schools, gen­der pro­nouns, and chil­dren be­ing al­lowed to un­der­go gen­der re­as­sign­ment surgery.

De Souza said she agreed with Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s views, as chil­dren should nev­er be al­lowed to make de­ci­sions about gen­der re­as­sign­ment with­out prop­er psy­chi­atric sup­port.

“Un­der the Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion, the ages for re­as­sign­ment surgery were too ear­ly. I went through that surgery, and it’s some­thing I was not sure about,” she said.

“The world is not ready for a third gen­der, to be quite hon­est.”

Over the past three years, 26 Re­pub­li­can-con­trolled US states have passed laws re­strict­ing gen­der-af­firm­ing care for mi­nors. Most of the laws ban pu­ber­ty block­ers, hor­mone treat­ment and surgery for those un­der 18.

De Souza said as a trans­gen­der, she was not of­fend­ed in any way by Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“If you know her, she does not see in­di­vid­u­als as gay, black, white, red, blue, or any­thing else. She sees you for who you are. I have felt com­fort­able with her as a trans­gen­der, and she does not show any sign of be­ing an­ti-gay. She has al­ways tried to in­clude every­one, whether they have cere­bral pal­sy, are gay, or are dyslex­ic. She al­ways makes us feel part of so­ci­ety,” De Souza said.

She said she is will­ing to serve as a UNC sen­a­tor again if giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty.

“We need to set up a child gen­der af­fairs de­part­ment. Have you seen the re­ports of child sui­cides? Speak to their par­ents, and you’ll un­der­stand why. The world is dif­fer­ent now, and we need more psy­chol­o­gists in schools,” she said.

Not­ing that T&T lacks laws ad­dress­ing gen­der re­as­sign­ment, De Souza added: “Par­ents who can af­ford it, take their kids abroad for re­as­sign­ment surgery. It’s a dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion when a child has to go to school with a gen­der is­sue. These is­sues are glob­al, and we must deal with them.”

De Souza al­so ex­pressed sup­port for US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, who said there can on­ly be two gen­ders.

“He is right. We are not ready for a third gen­der. I have worked with Don­ald Trump, and I know he as­so­ciates with many peo­ple who are gay and trans­gen­der. Like me, he al­so be­lieves that chil­dren should not go through gen­der re­as­sign­ment. What hap­pens if they change their mind when they are 18 or 19?” she asked.

De Souza said a psy­chi­a­trist and psy­chol­o­gist can help with such de­ci­sions.

“I had to un­der­go psy­chi­atric ses­sions and stayed with a psy­chi­a­trist for two years. I was over 17 at the time. They had to en­sure I was ca­pa­ble and ready. They had to put me on hor­mon­al treat­ments. It’s a much dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tion. Chil­dren at the age of nine, ten, or sev­en should not have their par­ents choos­ing for them. They should be able to reach an age where a psy­chi­a­trist can as­sess them af­ter two years of hor­mon­al treat­ments and de­ter­mine if that is the right de­ci­sion for them.”

She not­ed that there are cas­es of peo­ple chang­ing their minds about gen­der re­as­sign­ment as they grow old­er. How­ev­er, some of the is­sues be­ing faced in the US such as trans­gen­dered peo­ple us­ing bath­rooms have nev­er arisen in T&T.

“Here I have on­ly used fe­male bath­rooms, and I was al­ways wel­comed, whether at the Prime Min­is­ter’s res­i­dence or in the Sen­ate. No one ob­ject­ed, dis­re­spect­ed me, or threw me out—not even the Prime Min­is­ter.”

Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath al­so came out in sup­port of Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“The Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion took it too far with the far-left ex­treme in­san­i­ty,” he said.

“While I agree that there must be mu­tu­al re­spect, tol­er­ance and un­der­stand­ing on faith, im­mi­gra­tion and gen­der is­sues, the Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion fa­cil­i­tat­ed ex­treme po­si­tions that were tak­ing us to the point of no re­turn. The land­slide vic­to­ry of Pres­i­dent Trump clear­ly demon­strat­ed that the Amer­i­can peo­ple shared that view as well,” he said.

“I don’t un­der­stand why any­one would sup­port the in­san­i­ty that was be­ing done to chil­dren as a fa­ther of a young daugh­ter,” he added, not­ing that 18,000 chil­dren were killed in Gaza un­der Biden.

An­gelique Nixon, di­rec­tor of Coali­tion Ad­vo­cat­ing for In­clu­sion of Sex­u­al Ori­en­ta­tion (CAISO), said the group will is­sue a state­ment on the mat­ter. 


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