We speak to our US Correspondent Glenn Stanton from Focus on the Family about some key stories happening in the US, including – the landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles; the roots of the trans violence epidemic; transgender clinics closing around the US; and President Trump’s State Of The Union address this week (and tribute to Charlie & Erika Kirk)
Show transcript auto-generated by Descript app:
Bob: Well, in this episode of McBlog, we go to our US correspondent. Uh, we’re gonna counter the narrative that New Zealand gets from CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times, and we’re gonna get the truth. Uh, and it’s a big welcome to Glenn Stanton, focus on the family. How are you, Glen?
Glenn: I’m doing super well, Bob. How are you, man?
Bob: Good to have you, uh, giving us some, some truth out of the United States. And look, I’m really keen to get into our first topic, and that is around this case that’s happening in, in court in California. It’s, uh, meta, um, basically being sued by a young person who was harmed by social media, got into it when they were six. Um, and of course they were supposed to be blocked. Mark Zuckerberg from meta turns up and says, actually, yeah, we probably weren’t doing enough for. Under 13 year olds, I was interested just to hear your take on, on this case, whether it’s gonna have any ramifications, but also what is the general feel of Americans to social media for young people, especially with people like Jonathan het going around saying, we need to ban it for under 16 year olds.
What’s, what’s your take on all of this?
Glenn: Yeah. You know, what completely belie uh, agree with John hit on what he has done with his book. And this trial is a very, very important trial. Um, and it’s like, you know, it’s, this is the, the high tech old tobacco, um, case of
Bob: Yep.
Glenn: You know, them pushing these products that are highly addictive and.
They’re culpable, they’re vulnerable on this stuff. But Zuckerberg at his trial this week says like, oh yeah, no, this is not addictive in any way. Um, kids love using these things. If they didn’t love using ’em, they wouldn’t use ’em. And, you know, crazy things like that. But no, he’s sticking to his guns. That, um, you know, that, that. These technologies are not addictive to young people. Um, but we know that they are. We see it. Um, so yeah, we, I mean we at focus on the family. We in the United States recognize and appreciate what this is doing, not just to young people, but what it’s doing to us as adults. We know it’s addictive because so many of us as adults are addicted to these technologies. Right?
Bob: Yeah. So, uh, there has been talk, I mean, in New Zealand they’re talking about a social media ban for under sixteens. We’re watching Australia. I see that France, Germany, the UK are talking about it. I know in the United States they’ve talked about it, but they’ve also talked about this app store accountability, which I think is quite a good solution as well, where when children first download these social media apps, they have to get parental approval because the accounts are linked.
So it’s putting the pressure on the app stores, uh, that seems to be, you know, a good solution as well. So what, what’s the general take on families that you talk to about what they think the solution is? Or do they think we just put up with the. Big tech. Um, I, I, I like that comparison with big tobacco and even big, big marijuana in that, you know, they’ve told us lies.
They sell it as a health product. They don’t tell us the true risk. They say they’re not targeting kids, but they clearly are. They’ve admitted it now. So, yeah. What, what’s the, what’s the parent parental solution here?
Glenn: Well, I think parents are really big on limitations. Uh, I don’t think that there are many parents who are like, no kids have a right to have, you know, complete access to these smartphones that, you know, are very, very addictive.
Um, but, you know, even the things where, you know, there’s, there’s dual accountability and things like that. I mean. Truthfully, parents don’t do a real good job of policing themselves and their use of these technologies, and we have got to find some way. To free ourselves from this bondage and this addiction that we have.
Um, I think people are starting to realize that, oh my goodness, like how much time do I actually spend on my phone or when I don’t have my phone right next to me, I myself start to get jittery and our teenagers, our young children are doing this kind of thing. Um, and we’re seeing that kind of effect. So.
I’m actually, um, a, a big proponent of, you know, not allowing access to these things until. You know, 16, 18, um, when kids’ minds develop and we have got to do a better job of practicing disciplines ourself, but also, um, imposing disciplines and boundaries on our kids. Um,
Bob: I know you do a lot of studies around doing a really
Glenn: good job of that.
Bob: Yeah. I, I mean, sorry to interrupt. No, I know you do a lot of, um, research around. Mental health and, and children and families and interaction and, and what works. Uh, the question that I wondered was, can we just come in with a blanket ban, just like that, pull the rug from under their feet? Or do we say, okay, from here on in, we are going to block your ability to download. So sort of, um, not apply it retrospectively, but apply it into the future because has the horse bolted? Can we, can we rein it back in?
Glenn: That’s a great question. I, I think either would be good. I mean, if, if you can say like, from here on out, we’re building boundaries here. Um, that will help a whole lot of kids and a whole lot of families.
Um, but I’m also, I mean, focus. The family doesn’t have a particular view on this that I know of. Um, but I just myself and, you know, Jonathan Het, like, I’m so impressed with him where he, you know, even as kind of a moderate liberal, just says, no, absolutely get this stuff out of the life of your kids. And I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that.
I think there’s a lot of insight into that set. Said another way, I don’t think there’s any real damage. If we went into overdrive and just said, Hey, let’s cut this stuff out, um, nobody’s life is gonna be poorer for that kind of approach to this.
Bob: Yeah, well, I think we’re all watching Australia with, uh, interest.
And look, I do know that the family policy councils, which are affiliated with Focus on the Family, in which I’m kind of like the 51st, um, state, uh, that they welcome me in. Yeah, you are. You know, think that the, um, uh, app Store accountability is a, is a good place to start because it’s parental involvement.
Um, and so parents get to determine, right, let’s continue. Uh, and look, there has been a good trend. There’s, there’s been a number of gender clinics around the country that have been closing down, stopping the, the butchering basically of vulnerable young children, the chemicalization and castration and the confusion.
Um, it is this, is this a nationwide trend? I mean, it’s gotta be on the back of the pressure that the Trump administration is putting on these transgender clinics. Is it.
Glenn: Yeah, it absolutely is because in late December, um, the Trump administration, um, directed HHS to bar hospitals, all hospitals from performing, um, sex rejecting procedures for children.
I mean, here’s their, their press statement right there. And so hospitals all across the country. Are realizing that the pressure is on them, but it’s not just what the Trump administration or HHS Health and Human Services is doing. Um, they’re realizing that the research is not there. And we had the first, at the end of January, we had the first, it was a $2 million settlement.
A a, a New York Court ruled in favor of. This young woman who regretted having trans surgery, and so they’re realizing that these are coming and. They are starting to increasingly stop performing these against children and some are even, um, proposing, stopping performing them with adults as well.
Bob: Wow. Uh, okay.
With adults. That’s interesting. Just earlier this week I spoke with Chloe Cole, um, you know, California based, who came to the, our conference two years ago. Uh, of course she’s got her day in court next year and. Uh, she said to me, look, it’s not so much the money. She just wants to shut down the industry, so other kids.
Yeah. And harmed by it, um, which I thought was a, a, a very good line. State of the state of the union. I will come back to Trump’s State of the Union just to get your take on that at the end. But there was a, a great uhhuh bit where Trump paid tribute to, um, a Detransition who, and this is a young girl who was sneaked off by her school against the parents’ wishes. I’ll just show you that.
Donald Trump: The gallery tonight are Sage, Blair and her mother, Michelle. In 2021, Sage was 14. When school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her to a new gender, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Before long, a confused sage ran away from home after she was found in a horrific situation in Maryland. A left wing judge refused to return sage to her parents because they did not immediately state that their daughter was their son. Sage was thrown into an all boys, stayed home and suffered terribly for a long time. But today, all of that is behind them because Sage is a proud and wonderful young woman with a full ride scholarship to Liberty University, Sage and Rochelle, please stand up.
Bob: Yeah, pretty, pretty incredible moment. It’s, it’s, you know, the Democrats didn’t stand up. I mean, it’s that kind of, yeah. Uh, story reminds you just how close to home this all is and look, that, that seems to be crumbling, isn’t it, as we speak.
Glenn: You know what, Bob? It is crumbling largely because President Donald Trump stood up and said, you know, his first day in office the second time said, it is the policy of the United States that there are only two sexes, male and female. We are not putting up with this foolishness that there are all kinds of genders anymore. And that gave. That stiffened the spine of a lot of people and they realize that, yeah, you just need to state the truth and challenge this stuff. And like doing that at the State of the Union last night was absolutely really remarkable because it reminds people that these kids have been manipulated, just like social media manipulates, gender ideology has manipulated these kids and their families.
To believe that this is true and it’s not true. And Chloe, I mean, she’s a beautiful young woman today. That woman who is at the state of the Union, she’s just a lovely young girl. Um, and they gain their confidence as their bodies develop and mature and learn who God made them to be. And so calling out these trans lies is very, very important, very critical.
Bob: Now you did point me to an article in First Things, which is a very good magazine, and I know you write in it, um, quite often, but article about the root of the trans violence epidemic. So, uh, give us a bit of detail on this, but it’s, it’s pointing to the fact that there has been a lot of, uh, basically mass shootings that have involved transgender people, of course.
Think of the recent Canadian case. Think of the recent ice rink. Yeah. Um, think of the Catholic School. Think of the. Association with the shooter that assassinated Charlie Kirk. So is that what this article is getting at?
Glenn: It is kind of getting at that and the writer of this, um, is a guy, um, at the Claremont Institute.
He, uh, works out of Washington DC and his take is that, you know. Placing the blame of this on the transgender issue is a secondary thing. He says, really what it is, is it goes to the breakdown of the family and the breakdown of the family caused by radical second wave feminism. Um, and this is what his article highlights is that, um.
Nearly all of these shooters, you know, they come from broken homes, they are disconnected from their fathers, um, they come from homes of divorce. And this writer talks about how all this happened. And he points out in the article that like women file for about 70% of all divorces in the us among college educated women, about 90% of those divorces.
Are initiated by the woman, and these are women believing the lie that, you know what? In order to like have a good life, dump your husband and go out and find yourself. But these are breaking up families in tremendous ways. I know that very personally, and that’s what he’s getting at, is that the transgenderism and a lot of these confusions with young people.
Are symptoms, if you will, of the larger upstream thing of, um, radical feminism and, and broken families, and I completely agree with it.
Bob: Mm. Okay. Just tell us a little bit about, uh, the human rights campaign. It seems with anything, with the name, human Rights in it, um, is a rabidly left wing. Uh, I’m thinking of the Human Rights Commission in New Zealand. Uh, but they’re selling gender lies now. Oh, this is written by you. How about that? Yeah, this is gonna be good. What have you written?
Glenn: I wrote this so last week sometime, and it’s highlighting the work of the human rights campaign. And they are, curiously, the way they pick that name, um, they are the largest gay and trans rights organization in the world. They’re based in Washington DC and the reason I wrote this article is they are looking, um, to the midterm elections coming up here in the United States, and they understand that they got an absolute shellacking in, in, um, the polls and in the elections, um, this last time around because of the trans issue.
I mean, it was something that they just could not defend. So what the h, what HRC Human Rights Campaign is doing now is they’re just upping their game and they’re trying to encourage politicians to, you know, never apologize for standing up. For men who believe and pretend that they are women, um, they’re basically saying, you know what? We got shellacked in the last election, but double down. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Um, yell even louder, fight even harder. And one of the things that we love is we love that strategy because they’re gonna get just absolutely killed again because you cannot put a good face on the lie. That same-sex families are great and that a man in a dress, um, can be a woman.
You know, and that’s what they’re getting behind and that’s what HRC, um, with this new campaign is just more of the same, but like, just yell it louder and um, it’s gonna end up hurting them very badly.
Bob: I see that there are some attempts to try and overturn the same sex marriage, you know, which was ushered through by the Supreme Court many years ago, what was it, 2011 was it? Or in 2015?
Glenn: 2015.
Bob: I mean, what chance would you put on. Law being overturned. I mean, I’m thinking of Roe v. Wade, and everyone would’ve said, well, we’re never gonna overturn that. And it was, um, yeah, much to the annoyance of the left wing and the media.
Glenn: Well, it took a long, long, long time. Yeah, it took a long, long time to overturn Roe. I don’t think it will take as long to overturn Obergefell, which is the equivalent, the same sex equivalent of Roe. Um. Katie Faust, who is, you know, you know her very well. You’ve had her at your forum. She’s a good friend of mine.
Um, she is heading up a coalition that is looking to overturn this and she’s seeking to overturn it by getting people to understand. Every same sex marriage denies children fundamentally what they need most. And that is access to their mother and their father. Focus on the family is a part of that campaign.
Number of other people are parts of that campaign. And I think that, um, people will be surprised not how easy it will be, but it will go much quicker than, um, RO overturning Ro did. Um, because the, it was founded just on bad law, bad, um, uh, judicial, um, interpretation of what marriage and what, um, the institution itself is.
Bob: Hmm. Okay. Um, just to finish with State of the Union, uh, speech, uh, with Trump this week, and look. Democrats didn’t look good because they didn’t stand up to defend a victim of a horrific, uh, attack by an immigrant. And, and the mother was there, uh, of the, of the dead daughter. They didn’t stand up for the, uh, detransition. They didn’t stand up to say, we will defend the rights of Americans, um, versus the rights of illegal immigrants, uh, it, it didn’t come across well. What’s been the general reaction to that state? I mean, ’cause in New Zealand, of course, uh, the New Zealand media hated it, but I’m interested to know what the general feel is in the US on it.
Glenn: Well, the general media here hated it as well. I mean, like. Trump could save, you know, a family of children from a burning building, and they would find something wrong with that.
Bob: Uh, Trump could cure cancer and they’d still say he was being mean. So, yeah. Anyway.
Glenn: Right. Exactly. Exactly. And that’s, and that’s the case. But I think people are largely very pleased. There was a CNN poll, um, of people who watched it and the, the positive rating of the speech last night was remarkably high. But Bob, I was absolutely struck by something that you pointed out. I mean, all those things that he just states. But you know, he says, stand up and show your support for this statement – the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. And the Democrats couldn’t stand up. They wouldn’t stand up. I mean, it’s just absolutely remarkable and it shows you how divided, sadly we are, and how partisan we are as a nation that mm-hmm. My guy can say anything and I’ll, you know, I’ll give two thumbs up.
But if the opposition says something completely reasonable, even about the government protecting its own citizens, they will not stand up for that. And it’s just, it’s stunning. It’s remarkable. But. The Democrats? Unfortunately not unfortunately. I mean, they keep doing this to themselves. Yeah. And I think their own leadership gets frustrated with him is like, guys don’t be so dumb on this stuff, you know?
Bob: Yeah. Okay. Um, just finally, there was a beautiful moment in the speech where he, uh, honored Charlie Kirk and uh, also Erica Kirk, who was in the audience, just to show you that bit.
Donald Trump: I’m very proud to say that during my time in office both. The first four years, and in particular this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God. Tremendous. This is especially true among young people. And a big part of that had to do with my great friend Charlie Kirk, who, great guy, great man. So last year Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred really martyred for his. Beliefs. His wonderful wife Erica, is with us, US tonight. Erica, please stand.
Bob: Yeah. And uh, Trump then called for the end to all political violence. I think it was the one time that the Democrats actually stood up and, uh, uh, applauded. But it was a lovely tribute to. Through Charlie Kirk, um, especially with what they’ve, you know, gone through what Erica’s gone through and is going through the, they, you know, what’s your take on, on just what’s happened since the assassination of Charlie?
Glenn: Yeah. You know what I mean? I think about how America would be even stronger if he were still alive and his influence. And when that whole chamber started breaking out in the chant, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, that was like. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. And to see such a young man have such influence and not because he was conservative, he was a conservative to be sure, but because he was a Christian, um, in the last couple of years of his life, his Christian faith really, really became something that lit him on fire. And that was infectious. And there are so many young men today who they start to dress like Charlie. You know, they wear a coat and a tie, they wanna be respectful. Um, they’ve started going to church. They carry their Bible with them, um, because they liked the kind of man that Charlie was. And so Donald Trump celebrating him last night is really a wonderful thing for the country, and I love it because it’s a wonderful thing, not just for young men, but for young women as well, because young women want men like that. They want respectable men. Confident men. Men who know what they believe, and men who will stand for what they believe and not apologize and do it politely, do it kindly do it graciously. Um, and Charlie was that. And so yes, us celebrating that and celebrating Charlie at the State of the Union last night and honoring Erica and her strength, um, was a very good thing.
Bob: Yeah. Alright. Always great to catch up with you, Glen, and we’ll speak to you in a couple of weeks. Thanks for your time on McBlog.
Glenn: All right, Bob. I look forward to it, man. Thank you.
