The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | State OKs Bans on Transgender Treatments for Minors, TikTok in Bid to Keep Kids Safe

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

Montana recently passed a bill banning transgender treatments on minors. “It's very important that we protect our children, especially physically, from these treatments that are permanent,” Montana state Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe says. “There's not been a lot of studies done on the long-term effects of these [treatments],” the Republican lawmaker said, adding "but we also see a lot of detransitioners, or people who have regretted it because they were not given the adequate help that they needed and the treatment that they needed. They were just told to have surgery." The Montana legislation, banning treatments such as cross-sex hormones and gender-reassignment surgeries, passed late last month, was signed into law Friday. Seekins-Crowe joins "The Daily Signal" podcast to discuss the legislation and the state's action to ban TikTok. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A parent, her son is in kindergarten. And she asked if she could see the videos that they were going to show in a kindergarten. And they said no. So she did end up pulling her son out just in kindergarten. And I find that very troublesome. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, May 1st. I'm Virginia Allen. And that was Montana State Representative Carrie Seekins Crow.

Montana recently passed a bill that requires schools to notify parents of human sexual. instruction in the classroom. Representative Seekins Crow says the aim of the bill is to give parents control of their kids' education and to protect children from inappropriate content. The mission to protect

children is why Seekins Crow says she backed a Montana bill banning transgender treatments on minors. The bill has gained national attention after Democrat Montana Representative Zoe Zephyr bashed his colleagues for support. the bill. Zephyr is transgender and he told his colleagues in the house there would be blood

on your hands if they voted in support of the transgender treatment ban. But the bill did pass and is now waiting for a signature from the Montana governor. Seekins Crow joins us here on the show today to explain the ways Montana is working to protect the citizens of the state through bills like these and why Montana recently became the first date to ban TikTok. Stay tuned for our conversation after this. The reading clerk will now call the role. Bids. It's money and power that control this town.

Bishop of North Carolina. All we're talking about chaos and dysfunction in Washington because Republicans didn't sit down like Democrats do. Cray. It's like this cul-de-sacca greed and corruption, and it just keeps going around and around. Gates. I felt like it doesn't even matter which party wins the majority

because both sides are working for the same lobbyists. Luna. I had a reporter that basically accosted me in the hallway saying really vile stuff. Perry. One member came up to me and said, Your presence disgusts me. Roy.

So maybe the American people need to know the truth. And it's extraordinary what happens when you tell the truth in this town. People go, what the hell are you doing? Why would you do that? The fact is, what we want, because we were telling the truth. What you've just listened to is our brand new exclusive documentary about the 20 House Republicans who fought against the Washington establishment. We sat down with representatives Chip Roy of Texas, Eli Crane and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Anna Paulina Luna, and Matt Gates of Florida,

Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Dan Bishop of North Carolina about the speaker race and why they chose to take a stand. The documentary is now available on the Daily Signals YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram pages. It's my pleasure today to welcome to the show, Montana State Representative Carrie Seekins-Crow. Thank you so much for being here today. It's such an honor to be here. Well, if you would, first just share a little bit of your own story. How did you get involved in the political space? I was very active and involved in the political space from college and through adulthood,

kind of in between raising my children and moving around the country because my husband's military career. And so I always got involved, but at the grassroots level, very comfortable being out of the spotlight, not being the one making the decisions, not having a voting record. And in 2015, I got a phone call from somebody asking me to run for office. And I did. I ran for the Billings City Council. I did not win, but I learned a lot, and it was the right thing to do. And then 2016, I ran for the House of Representatives for the Montana State House. And again, I lost. And it was a very great learning experience, but it was a right thing to do.

And so at that point, I was just ready to never run for office again. I was okay just staying home and gardening and teaching. And then I was selling real estate and being a grandma. And in 2019, I received another phone call and somebody asked me to run. and it wasn't like I had this big epiphany or a midlife crisis or anything, but I just knew at that time it was the right thing to do. And so I ran for office. And then, of course, 2020 changed the trajectory of everything.

And our rights were trampled. And things became so much more important at that point. And especially for state's rights purposes, also for just human rights and our constitutional rights. So I ran again and won office in 2020 to serve in the 2021 legislature. Excellent. And I know that you've lived in quite a few different places across the country, but ultimately Montana is home.

Why is Montana such a special place? And why did you decide that's where you wanted to really plant your roots? Well, I was born in Montana, but my dad was in the military and then he was in the force service. So I was blessed, moved all around the country, especially in these wonderful places that have these great forests, South Dakota, Colorado, Idaho, Montana. I went to college in Alaska and worked in Washington, D.C. for a while, which is where I met my husband, and then we were down in Georgia for a while. But it ultimately came back to my family. It was in Montana. We wanted to go back to Montana. So in 2002, we moved back.

And it was so we could live in a place where we loved the area. We loved the people, but also because family and our family lives there within a very short distance. I have four generations right now there and extended family as well. Well, and I think so much of your work in the Montana State House really reflects that passion for family and desire to protect families. and a lot of the recent legislation that you have supported, that you've backed, worked on reflects that. There is a bill that you sponsored that passed through the House earlier this year

that requires schools to notify parents of human sexuality instruction. Why did you see a need for this kind of bill in your state, in school specifically in your state? Well, with this bill, I have to give credit where credit is due. This bill was actually one that was passed last session. It was Senate Bill 99 as well by Senator Kerry Smith. What I did was just put some stronger sideboards on it because what was happening, the policies within the school system,

you were either getting notices for human sexuality instruction daily so that parents would ignore it, or we were getting one notice at the very beginning of the year. And it was not working well. It was frustrating for teachers, frustrating for parents, so mine just basically put some sideboards that it has to be within 10 days, to 48 hours because in our state parents must opt out. And so that gives them the chance to opt out of human sexuality instruction.

Now, something very interesting happened that I had talked to actually a parent and her son is in kindergarten. And she had gotten the notice and she asked if she could see the videos that they were going to show in kindergarten. And they said no. So she did end up pulling her son out. And it was this past year, but just in kindergarten. And I find that very troublesome.

Well, I think it's eye-opening because you think, oh, well, maybe that's happening in New York or Chicago. It's happening across the country in rural areas and in big cities. A lot of these policies are not by geographical district. This is something that's happening everywhere, and state borders do not stop it. Yeah, yeah. Well, one of the other ways that you have really been seeking to protect, specifically young people in your state of Montana, lawmakers passed a bill banning gender treatments on children such as puberty blockers, surgeries. Why was this a priority for you and your colleague?

We tried to pass this last session as well, and we're not able to do that. But this session with the help of a lot of folks who are a lot smarter than we are, doctors, attorneys, policy makers. We were able to get it done. And I did carry this bill on that house floor. But it's very important that we protect our children, especially physically, from these treatments that are permanent and they are very dangerous. There's not been a lot of studies done on the long-term effects of these, but we also see a lot of detransitioners or people who regretted it

because they were not given the adequate help that they needed and the treatment that they needed. They were just told to have surgery. Now, when we think about protecting our kids, where are the kids today? Well, they're on social media platforms, right? And so many are on TikTok specifically. Montana recently became the first state to pass legislation banning TikTok. Your thoughts?

Oh, it's so fun to be a rebel. And I am glad that I voted for that legislation, especially because of how dangerous TikTok is, not just as a platform, but also as a national security issue. And so we worked very closely with our attorney general on that and looking forward to the governor signing that bill very soon. And so what does that practically... look like are our individuals just not able to download the apps onto their phone. How do you go about banning an app that literally, you know, likely tens of thousands of people in your state

have on their phones? I am not an IT person. In fact, my children have to help me set up my phone and pretty soon my grandchildren will be doing the same thing. In fact, my grandma is like, no, grandma is this one. But I'm not quite sure of exactly how that works, but I think it, fencing. Okay. That makes sense. I'm not sure. But I'm no tech expert either. I'm looking forward to seeing how we can fight this. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you all are also really pressing forward on the pro-life front now. Of course, you know, we're living in a post-Rovie Wade world, and every state now is moving forward of, okay, how do we go about protecting life in our state? What is Montana doing? Well, in Montana, we're passing great legislation. This,

The problem that we have in Montana, the couple of different areas, one is we have the Armstrong decision that states that the right to privacy supersedes the right to life, which I find to be rather sad. And we have passed some great legislation, but the other problem that we have is our judiciary is very liberal and very activist. And so anytime we pass a law, we've got laws that are sitting there and joined for 10 years now. But last session, we also passed some, and then we've got activist judges who basically

throw it out right away as well, but I will not stop fighting. In fact, I carried a bill so that any child that is born alive during an attempted abortion will get the appropriate palliative care or care to help that child live, just as any child would get and deserves. Yeah, common sense legislation. Yes. Now, I know you're a passionate advocate on returning power, really back to the hands of the people. How is Montana working to do that, to give power back to the people in your state? Well, I think step one is taking it away from the federal government. We see the federal government's overreach, for instance, in education, even though in our state where we say you have the freedom of speech and the freedom to tell the truth to our teachers, our federal government right now says, no, you will follow the rules that we have set through the Department of Education. and I find that to be rather tragic as well.

We also work to give rights back to the citizens that they should have and not have that be dictated by the state. One thing that we did in the last legislature, we were one of the first states to say that you cannot discriminate based on somebody's vaccination status, and I feel that that was very important. So people could have that decision left in their hands and that it was not a government or a business telling them what to do.

Now, one fun question here before we let you go. For anyone who is eager to visit the state of Montana, what's the best time of year to visit, and what should we have on our list to see? Oh, anytime. Great. And of course, Yellowstone is open in the summer, but don't pet the animals. That would be number one. But we have, of course, the Glacial National Park.

Even in the eastern part of the state, we've got great parks. It really is just depending on what you want to do. I think a fun trip, and a shout out to where I graduated high school would always be, if you're going to come spend time, drive, of course. Drive in, go to Mount Rushmore, go to the Black Hills of, because I did go to high school in Cusor, South Dakota, and then come over and visit Yellowstone, go up to Glacier National Park. There's so much to see great people along the ways, and you get everything. You get the planes and the mountains and just the wonderful scenery and the wonderful people.

Representative Seekins Crow, thank you so much your time today. This has been fun. It's just absolutely my honor. Thank you. And with that, we're going to leave it there for today. Thanks so much for joining us here on the DailySitle podcast. If you haven't had the chance, be sure to check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day. Also make sure to subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you like to listen to the podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, CastBox.

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