A Democrat ally schooled a GOP leader on why transgender bans make no sense

In a recent debate on the Missouri House floor, state Rep. Peter Meredith (D) told House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson (R) that Republican book-banning efforts resemble Nazi book burning. Meredith also explained why the state’s recently passed bans on transgender athletes and gender-affirming care — which includes bans on puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy — discriminate against a large swath of non-trans people.

A video of their exchange begins with Meredith notifying Patterson that the first documented Nazi book burning occurred in 1933. In that incident, fascists burned a medical library of books on sexuality and gender maintained by Magnus Hirschfeld, a doctor who ran the world’s first-known clinic to offer gender-affirming surgeries.