President Trump’s message Tuesday “to every child in America … that you are perfect exactly the way God made you” was “perhaps the most important line of the night,” says Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

Why?

“Because,” Hawley told The Heartlander in an exclusive interview Thursday, “it goes right at the false gender ideology the Democrats have been pushing for years now, that says to our kids that there’s something wrong with them. If you’re a boy, you really ought to be a girl, if you’re a girl maybe you’re really a boy trapped in a girl’s body.

“That is so destructive. It has led to the most unbelievable mental health issues. It has torn families apart. It has literally killed children. 

“And we’ve seen it in Missouri. We’ve seen these so-called gender clinics, like the one in St. Louis, where they make big money off of mutilating kids, doing these gender surgeries that are irreversible, that are sterilizing for life, sometimes without full parental consent. 

“Now it’s illegal in Missouri. It ought to be illegal everywhere. And the president calling that out on Tuesday night, I think was hugely significant.”

The line – heralded by many others after Trump’s speech to the Joint Session of Congress – had special resonance for Hawley. His special guest for the evening was Dr. Eithan Haim, a Dallas surgeon who blew the whistle on gender treatments for minors at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston in 2023 after the institution said it would stop the practice.

Haim was facing a possible decade in prison for the disclosure before the Trump administration stepped in.

“They were doing gender surgeries, gender mutilation surgeries, without parental consent,” Hawley says. “It was illegal in the state of Texas. This hospital, which is one of the biggest in the state, was doing it anyway.  

“Dr. Haim is a national hero, because he went out there and blew the whistle. He exposed it.  

“And do you know, the Biden administration prosecuted him for that. They brought not just a civil lawsuit, but a criminal prosecution, and were looking to put him in jail. 

“I was privileged to help convince the Trump administration to drop all of those charges. He is just, again, a national hero. He has saved lives in Missouri, because Dr. Haim’s witness, his boldness, his courage, helped convince Missouri lawmakers to pass our ban on gender transition surgeries for minors. So, he’s an all-American hero. He was my guest on Tuesday night, and it was terrific to have him.”

Haim expressed surreal elation that, after he was staring down the possibility of 10 years in prison, instead he was an honored guest at a president’s address to Congress.

On Thursday, Haim posted on X about a new study indicating that “gender-affirming surgery,” rather than improving mental health as advocates claim, is instead “associated with increased risk of mental health issues.”

“This recently published study is a major indication the house of cards surrounding transgender medicine is collapsing,” Haim wrote in his post.

“Notice the subtle, yet significant, change in conclusion’s language. 

“The claim was always that ‘gender affirming’ surgery was beneficial because it improves mental health. But now they have to concede these surgeries REDUCE mental health – something we knew all along. 

“So, now they have to move the goal post. 

“Instead of claiming these interventions improve anything, they say that these surgeries are beneficial because they ‘affirm gender identity.’

“The fatal problem with this statement is that gender identity is not real – it has no basis in physical reality, rather, it is a product of someone’s mind. 

“Therefore, they are claiming that surgeries – which expose their patients to significant, life-long, and debilitating risks – are justified because they affirm something which is not real (i.e. gender identity). 

“This is not medicine. This is a crime.”