Some 2,000 people turned out for the “Rally to End Child Mutilation” held in downtown Nashville Friday as a host of conservative speakers vowed to make gender transition for children illegal.
The mainly conservative crowd gathered at the War Memorial Plaza near the state capital in support of stopping surgery and chemical castration of minors.
A group of protesters favoring transgender “rights” for children tried to shout down the speakers by chanting, screaming profanities, and using sirens.
Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator for The Daily Wire, was greeted like a rockstar as he took the stage to give the keynote speech.
He called the group of protestors cowards because they didn’t want anyone to hear the truth about the “cult of gender ideology.” Walsh said attempting to shut down those speaking up for children wouldn’t work.
“We’re still here,” he shouted. “We are fighting for truth.”
He said that if parents don’t take a stand, America’s children will be subjected to hormones and genital mutilation.
“We’re not going to rest until every child is protected from this madness,” he added.
Walsh said the woke culture preys upon children and tries to cover their actions with lies, adding that this battle is one of “good versus evil.”
Walsh first drew attention to a doctor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville touting the profitability of transgender procedures for minors with gender dysphoria.
The expose caused an uproar among conservatives nationwide.
On Oct. 7, Vanderbilt announced it would temporarily pause gender surgeries on patients under 18 after Tenn. Republican Gov. Bill Lee called for an investigation into the clinic.
Walsh’s appearance was followed by 11 speakers, including detransitioners and GOP lawmakers. Detransitioners are people who came to regret going on the irreversible path of chemically and surgically altering their bodies.
Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) and state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) said they planned to introduce legislation to ban gender surgeries on minor children.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said she would work to stop the practice on the federal level. Blackburn said she asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to launch an investigation into the long-term effects of hormone replacement therapy.