In a recent video that has gone viral on social media, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan (D) discusses an executive order that Governor Tim Walz (D) signed last week reaffirming the legality of gender transition treatments, including for children. In the clip, the lieutenant governor says, “When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them. That’s what it means to be a good parent.”

In an image shared by the governor that depicts the signing of the executive order, his desk is surrounded by trans activists and children wearing dresses; given the context, the implication appears to be that the children are biological boys whose parents are permitting them to publicly present themselves as girls.

Though Flanagan received scattered applause in the viral video clip, her assessment of supporting gender ideology for children as a necessary component of good parenting struck a more negative chord with many listeners who oppose allowing children to undergo gender transition procedures or consume puberty blocking hormones. The Heritage Foundation responded to the video, stating, “This is the exact opposite of what a good parent does. There is nothing life-saving or life-affirming about chemically castrating or amputating a child’s healthy body. It is life-destroying and should be both a violation of medical standards of care and a criminal offense.”

“The lieutenant governor’s comments on what is required of good parenting would be humorous if they were not so tragic,” David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “Parents have the responsibility to disciple and impart guidance to their children. Good parenting entails leading children into truth and the current contagion of gender ideology is the opposite of truth. It is morally wrong and irresponsible to aid and abet an ideology that only leads to real harm.”

Discourse about the role of parents in making decisions about gender transitioning children has intensified in recent weeks after the Free Press published a piece from former pediatric gender clinic worker Jamie Reed titled, “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle.” In the article, Reed, who identifies as a “queer woman” and says she is “married to a transman” writes, “Another disturbing aspect of the center was its lack of regard for the rights of parents — and the extent to which doctors saw themselves as more informed decision-makers over the fate of these children.” Reed stepped away from the gender transition industry partially due to the incidents she witnessed in which parents were misled about the nature of the counseling their children were receiving.

Closson concluded, “Children should feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and imaginations to their parents. However, parents have a moral responsibility to remind children of what is right and wrong, what is true and false, and should lovingly point their children away from ideologies that teach them they can be whatever they want to be, even if what they want to be is untethered from reality.”