RAND Paul likened gender reassignment surgery to "genital mutilation" while grilling a transgender nominee for the Health and Human Services department.
Sen Paul launched into the attack during confirmation hearings for Rachel Levine, who Joe Biden nominated to serve as assistant HHS secretary.
The Kentucky senator went on a long-winded tirade, suggesting that the rise in gender confirmation surgeries and young people identifying as trans has to due with social pressure.
"American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones to prevent their biological development of their secondary sexual characteristics," Paul said.
"Most genital mutilation is not typically performed by force but, as WHO [the World Health Organization] notes, by social convention, social norm and social pressure to conform to do what others do and have been doing, as well as the need to be accepted socially, the fear of being rejected by the community."
He then posed a question to Levine, accusing the nominee, who is a transgender woman herself, of supporting transition procedures and interventions for minors.
"Dr Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia," Paul said.
"Like surgical mutilation, hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics.
"Do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decisions as changing one's sex?"
Levine, a pediatrician who currently serves as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health, thanked the senator for his "interest" in transgender medicine, but did not respond directly to the question.
Instead, she noted that transgender medicine is "a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed" over time.
"If I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office to discuss the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine," she said.
Paul continued in his tirade, saying that it should "go into the record that the witness refused to answer the question.
"The question is a very specific one: should minors be making these momentous decisions?"
Paul's commentary was met with much backlash online, with many people pointing out that his comments towards the first openly transgender person nominated for a Senate-confirmed seat could be considered condescening.
Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi applauded Levine for composing herself with "grace" as Paul took shots at her.
"Dr. Rachel Levine, the President's choice for Assistant Secretary for Health is the first transgender person nominated for a Senate-confirmed position," he wrote on Twitter.
"Today, she showed remarkable grace and courage in facing down the bigoted ramblings of a US Senator."
"Shame on Sen. Rand Paul who grilled transgender … Rachel Levine on hormone treatment, gender reassignment surgery and inappropriately compared it to castration and genital mutilation," wrote author Jill Wine-Banks.
"He clearly knows no transgender people."
Levine has been selected to help head up the department of Health and Human Services for the Biden administration with secretary nominee Xavier Becerra.
Becerra currently serves as attorney general in California.
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