Julian Castro, former US secretary for Housing and Urban Development who now seeks the Democratic Party's nomination to become their candidate for the 2020 US presidential election, has apparently landed in hot water after explaining whether transgender men should have the right to federal abortion funding, at a debate in Miami.
"Yes, it would", Castro said, as quoted by Breitbart, when asked if his health plan would cover abortion. "I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice. And, you know, what that means is that just because a woman — or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female, is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose. And so I absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion".
However, while the candidate was apparently referring to transgender people who were born female, his choice of words made it look like he meant the exact opposite – people born male who identify themselves as female – a fact that quite a few social media users quickly seized upon.
What he’s referring to though (in his own phobic way) is that Castro mistakenly lumped in transgender women in a discussion about abortion, when what he meant was trans men, as trans women (generally) don’t have uteruses.
— The Humanist Element (@ElementHumanist) 27 июня 2019 г.
Transgender females can’t get pregnant idiot. They are biologically males.
— US Citizen (@IllinoisCitizen) 27 июня 2019 г.
julián castro went ahead and misgendered every trans man out there saying that """transgender females""" should also have a right to abortion......... Happy Pride🏳️🌈🙃 #DemDebate
— one (1) jo, please (@space_hime) 27 июня 2019 г.
Julian Castro is a serious candidate? He stated that transgender women (people born as males) have abortion rights (a physical impossibility). This is not a serious person and he will never be president. #DemDebate
— Camie Pickett (@ECPickett) 27 июня 2019 г.
Some also focused on finding flaws in Castro's logic.
🤪😱 Someone should tell him that Transgender people do not have female reproductive organs! And don’t need female health care. And he wants to run our country..
— WSPopcorn (@PopcornCoke) 27 июня 2019 г.
And a number of people simply seemed less that thrilled by the candidate's speech.
— Spectre (@Spectre6_1) 27 июня 2019 г.
— G-dot (@gdotson62) 27 июня 2019 г.
