Playing dumb: Democrat Les Gara tells Dan Fagan Show he doesn’t know what puberty blockers for children are

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On the Dan Fagan Show on Wednesday (650 KENI), gubernatorial candidate Les Gara, a Democrat, claimed he does not know what puberty-blocker drugs are.

For those who haven’t heard of them, they are the increasingly prescribed medications that some children are being given to delay the onset of puberty, so that they can undergo “gender affirming” transition surgery. Boys who are given puberty blockers will not develop lower voices; later, when they have their penises cut off and breast implants installed, they can sound more feminine. These drugs were previously given to sex offenders as a form of chemical castration, but are now being given to children who are confused because society is giving them a choice about what gender to be.

When explained by host Dan Fagan what the drug does to children, Gara responded, “Look it, I’m a pro-privacy person. I’m not going to tell somebody what to do. Here’s what I will say about our trans kids, is roughly 40% of them think about committing suicide at some point in their life. I’m not going to try to get a single vote off those kids. Those kids are equal neighbors. They’re people that we should love. It’s not my business who you love. It’s not my business what you do with your body.” Listen to the rest of his statement here:

Gara, who is an attorney, tried to convince listeners that he had never heard of the chemical castration drug, although he had a lot to say about trans children. Puberty blockers and other gender hormone treatments are being given out by groups like Planned Parenthood, which has endorsed Gara for governor.

Gara said it’s up to parents, kids, and doctors, and he has no opinion on the matter.

Read more about the rise of the use of puberty blockers for children at City Journal.

Gara, when pressed, said a 13-year-old child should not be able to smoke pot, but said he will not make medical decisions for families on gender transition chemicals for children.

“I don’t believe in telling other people how to live their lives,” he said.

51 COMMENTS

  1. Gara: “Here’s what I will say about our trans kids, is roughly 40% of them think about committing suicide at some point in their life”.

    Very likely, 40% of the general population has thought of suicide, at least fleetingly, at some point in their lives.

      • I imagine it does. It’s rarely covered but a decent amount of people who go through the process wake up one day and do a version of “what have I done?”

        The process creates a lifetime patient. the challenges of altering your body to be something it’s not require constant maintenance and medical care.

        One of many reasons children should not be mutilated or chemically altered.

        I wouldn’t be surprised at all that if the suicide rate rose.

      • Mental illness can be treated and maybe even cured. Mental disability can also be treated, but not likely cured. I’m not sure if science as an industry even knows much about the current crop of sexual fantasies which are rapidly becoming social policy, but I’m overwhelmingly certain that science really doesn’t care. All they’re concerned about is the flow of money.
        Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex. The problem with that warning is that we did, indeed, end up with the worlds most powerful military, and lots of benefits come with that. A more appropriate warning might have been regarding the sexual-industrial complex. I fail to even remotely see any advantage to a society filled with sexual freaks.

      • Gara is dumber than the proverbial box of rocks. More sincere than Walker? Yes.
        They are both Democrat stooges.

      • How is that?! By rolling over and playing dead on the issue of sexually transitioning children? Mr. Gara kept back tracking and obfuscating, and avoiding answering Mr. Fagan’s simple question. What does your comment even mean? Gara was there to answer some questions and promote his candidacy. How does answering, or not, “destroy” a talk show host?

      • Seriously? LOL! I agree he was being honest when he said he didn’t know what puberty blockers are. But Duh, a puberty blocker is something that blocks puberty! And how can that EVER be a good thing? What else do you need to know. I think Les just never thought much about it

  2. His lips are moving so we know he is fabricating statements just like their Walker. They are both toxic for Alaska. Do not vote for them.

  3. And Mr. Fagan later said Mr. Gara is a nice guy, that he even likes him. Really Dan? I don’t even like those who vote for people such as Gara, he is not a nice guy, I think his best quality is his ability to lie with a straight face. I would continue, but the Censor is hiding on the other side of my screen.

  4. Apparently Gara does not read the news, turn on the TV, or actually do anything in the public sphere at all.
    The people on North Sentinal Island know what puberty blockers are. If Gara doesn’t he is perhaps the most ignorant individual on the planet. And, for some reason he thinks he should be governor???
    .
    Seriously, if he can ramble on for that long about trans kids and not know what puberty blockers are, he it either lying, or stupid. Well, I guess that makes him well qualified in the minds of leftists, but for everyone else, stay the heck away.

  5. Let’s make Jesus smile and abolish the democrat party vote righteous red republicans are our only hope, democrats flat out suck. Suzanne can you please let us know the name of the judge who help bring us rank choice voting please. We must oust democrats & Their judges oath breakers got to go. Got to go. Got to go.

  6. And how many honestly “trans” kids are there, as a percentage of the population? 1%? 0.1%? 0.001%? I’m guessing the latter figure is the closest to reality.
    .
    So why are we being forced into a debate that touches on only a minuscule percentage of the population, and for whom there was no real problem to begin with? And since when has it been acceptable, much less rational, to be basing broad public policy on insignificantly tiny minorities?
    .
    This entire topic, and debate, is contrived and artificial. Not to mention insidiously divisive, and just plain evil.

    • Could not agree more. These children and what they are going through does not affect the people so outraged by it. That being said, here are some the statistics I was able to find.

      Overall, the analysis found that at least 121,882 children ages 6 to 17 were diagnosed with gender dysphoria from 2017 through 2021.

      Over the last five years, there were at least 4,780 adolescents who started on puberty blockers and had a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis.

      At least 14,726 minors started hormone treatment with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2017 through 2021, according to the Komodo analysis. Reuters worked with health technology company Komodo Health Inc to identify how many youths have sought and received care

      The Komodo analysis of insurance claims found 56 genital surgeries among patients ages 13 to 17 with a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis from 2019 to 2021. Among teens, “top surgery” to remove breasts is more common. In the three years ending in 2021, at least 776 mastectomies were performed in the United States on patients ages 13 to 17 with a gender dysphoria diagnosis, according to Komodo’s data analysis of insurance claims. This tally does not include procedures that were paid for out of pocket.

      I had previously commented that surgeries were not happening with kids below 18. I was wrong. This at least gives some sense of numbers for this topic.

      • About 1.6 million people in the U.S. are transgender, and almost half of them are teenagers and young adults, according to a new report by the UCLA Williams Institute. That report, published in 2017 by the same researchers, showed that 23% of the transgender population was within the 13 to 25 years old range. Now about 43% of the U.S. transgender population is between the ages of 13 and 24, per a June report. That means transgender youth almost doubled in five years. Why is that? Does this younger generation have more psychological disorders, or is society projecting irreparable harm on our youth? The answer is pretty obvious to most. Would like to see a study on transgender children younger than 13 and how those numbers have changed. Astoundingly, WPATH recommends puberty blockers on children as young as 8 or 9.

        • “About 1.6 million people in the U.S. are transgender, and almost half of them are teenagers and young adults,”
          .
          Fun fact.
          When I was a teenager, I wanted to do whatever the in crowd was talking about, or doing.
          .
          When I grew up, I learned to consider the consequences of my actions before doing something. And, stopped following the “trendy” thing.

    • Perhaps you aren’t affected by it since you’re not a woman forced to shower or play sports with biological men who have body dysphoria. Maybe woman of the year, female athlete of the year, the first female four star admiral should actually be awarded to biological women and not men who think they can become women. The rights and accomplishments that women, mothers, grandmothers, fought so hard for should not be overshadowed by the rights of the transgender community and we will not back down.

  7. Sexual minorites, vets, Native yound men, and middle aged men all have higher risk for suicide.

    Also islolated people in general.

    Gara was not talking fleeting thought of suicide, rather actively considering suicide. You think 40% of the general population actively thinks about suicide? Actively means thinking out plans, seeking opportunity, assistance…

    Sounds like you fleetingly consider suicide regularly. Please talk with someone if you are. 988 is the national help line Marlin.

    • Re: “Gara was not talking fleeting thought of suicide”, rather actively considering suicide.”

      Well, his exact words were, “roughly 40% of them think about committing suicide at some point in their life.”

      “At some point” does not imply “actively considering suicide”.

      And no, I don’t think about suicide at all, I have a Great Family, Good Life, Blessed Health and Great Friends.

  8. “I don’t believe in telling other people how to live their lives,” but, he’s made a career of formulating policy and law that in many ways defines the boundaries of how you ‘can’ live your life and who will pay for it. If he stands by his statement, why isn’t he running as a Libertarian? As for puberty blockers, who in in here thought Michael Jackson “wasn’t” on them? That story turned out well. Additionally, I think it’s odd that someone who was lovingly adopted can be so adamant about unlimited abortion rights – specifically the age, time frame and who funds the procedures. But, as with all Dems across the country (Mary “Freedom” Peltola), that’s the only position they have to run on. When they lose this time around, I’m sure it will the Russians fault.

  9. He kept repeating the 40% line over and over, evading Dan’s question. He also repeated (many times) that he doesn’t want to try to get votes off trans kids, yet that is exactly what he is doing by refusing to state his position on puberty blockers and virtue signaling to the radical left. Typical sleazy commie whose position is too disgusting to say out loud. Dems are the party of child abuse and murder.

  10. Gara claims he has never heard of this issue, but he knows the talking points on it… and all the people he works with have their pronouns in their bio.

    These people are pathologically unable to give an honest answer.

  11. Good thing Gara decided not to be Walker’s running mate. Otherwise, people would have accused him of also being pedophile.

  12. “I don’t believe in telling other people how to live their lives.” (Gara)

    The man is a committed leftist. He absolutely DOES believe in telling other people how to live their lives.

    Just wait until he feels he’s no longer accountable.

  13. Apparently Les Gara lives under a rock and is not in touch with current events and topics. Clearly NOT a man we need in charge of the state. We already have one such individual in charge of the country.
    He also claims amnesia on how the state government actually works. On Mike Porcaro he was asked about the legislature’s role in supporting the governors agenda. He ignored the question and launched into a diatribe blaming the current governor for all and sundry. Clearly he implied that the governor is an omnipotent ruler. A sad statement considering the time he spent down in Juneau representing his district. Yet was it all a ruse? After making promises to saddle the oil companies with more taxes, he diluted his promise by stating he would introduce a bill in the legislature……

  14. Former Representative Les Gara says he believes that parents should be in charge of their children. But he has always opposed allowing parents to choose the best education fit for their kids. Why is that? He is joined at the hip with the Education Industry aka NEA/AFT.

  15. I read recently that the British National Health Service put out new guidance regarding gender issues in underage children. NHS declared that most children believing to be transgender are going through a “phase” and have banned puberty suppression drugs outside strictly controlled clinical trials. Treatment to those under 18 will be heavily restricted. Their reasoning is based on the fact that “transitioning” is not a neutral event and can result in significant effects in physiological functioning. Somebody should ask MR. Gara about that….

  16. Gara is either very ignorant or very dishonest. He actually sent out an email blast claiming that Trump said some white supremacists were fine people, regarding the Charlottesville confrontation. Any examination into the facts would have shown him that Trump never said that about white supremacists. But that didn’t matter to Gara. He had a political agenda to push.

    I told him how he was wrong, but he never wrote back.

  17. Evolution: Long ago, tribes/groups of humans existing together came to experiential conclusions of what was deemed allowable behavior (morals) and logically set those requirements up as moray: laws and requirements to live within that tribe/group.
    There have always been ‘trends’ challenging existing morals to change.
    Change can be bad or it can be good.
    The goal of a healthy community is to promote goodness – goodness doesn’t challenge bad, it erases it.

  18. Gara reminds me of a little troll, sitting under a bridge playing Billy Goat’s gruff, waiting to see if Bill Walker falls between the rails.

  19. On the Fagan radio show, I believe,Gara confirmed his understanding of the circle of life. In running for governor, Gara sees poor employment in Alaska resulting from the lack of construction, usually of public facilities, i.e. such as the UAA duplicate Engineering building w/garage & schools-the new Clark Middle School replaced a 20 year old building). The podcast quotes that “construction workers” needing good jobs are not working. The desires of education drive architectural firms to fund political campaigns so that the elected will push through those wants. Yes, school systems have lobbyists in Juneau as do labor unions. Unfortunately, Alaska does not have the population or students to fill this circle of life.

    • “The podcast quotes that “construction workers” needing good jobs are not working.”
      And, he is demonstrating his cluelessness right there.
      .
      Construction workers are, when you take into account seasonal work, generally not out of work. Typically, there is more demand for construction workers than there are workers. Again, seasonally adjusted. If an equipment operator is sitting around the union hall looking for work, it is either off season, or they suck at their job.
      .
      Are there downturns, sure… Happens in every industry, but with the Feds pumping literally billions into construction, there is no excuse for not working. In fact, the cost of building roads, bridges, and buildings has gone up significantly because of a lack of workers and materials.
      .
      Any politician that thinks construction workers are not working because the economy is bad is lying, ignorant, or stupid. None of which are qualifications for holding office. Well, unless you are a democrat.

  20. Anyone teaming with Bill Walker is suspect. The old adage “Birds of a feather flock together” applies here. If you look at his methods for the last 4 years and that of his allies, you see that anything goes to undermine anyone he doesn’t like, especially Big Mike. So I ask, is Bill Walker for himself or for Alaskans?

  21. Just to finish this thought what made Les Gara run in the first place? He clearly kept saying that Big Mike didn’t love the Kenai when the gov wasn’t at the debate but was instead at the disaster center marshaling resources for state and federal aid to Western Alaska. He even repeated this again. Maybe he doesn’t understand what a governor does.

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