Joe Biden did warn us. When he ran for president, there were a lot of issues his campaign happily downplayed. Transgender extremism wasn’t one of them. From tweets to townhalls, Biden couldn’t have made it clearer that he’d be bringing an LGBT focus with him to the White House. The media tried to run interference — insisting Biden’s words had been twisted or painting conservatives as lying alarmists. Now, a year and a half into his administration’s gender-twisting twilight zone, we know who was lying. And it wasn’t Joe Biden.

Back in 2020, the Democratic candidate was so adamant about transgender policy that he reiterated it two weeks before Americans went to the polls. During a primetime event in Philadelphia, Biden didn’t blink when the mom of two confused children asked him what he would do to advance their cause. “I will flat out just change the law,” he replied. “… [E]liminate [Donald Trump’s] executive orders, number one…” Then, with an intensity that people rarely saw, he went on, “The idea that an 8-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, ‘You know, I decided I want to be transgender. That’s what I think I’d like to be. It would make my life a lot easier.’ There should be zero discrimination… And so I promise you there is no reason to suggest that there should be any right denied your daughter or daughters.”

Those “rights,” conservatives sounded the alarm, would include life-altering surgery — the mutilation of children who wouldn’t realize the mistake until it was too late. Groups like the American Principles Project (APP) put out ads, desperately trying to warn America that this is where Joe Biden was headed. Not surprisingly, they were censored, vilified, and accused of “anti-trans info” and “disinformation” by the Washington Post, New York Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. PolitiFact even went so far as to label the claim “false,” arguing that Biden would never support sex changes for children. “Joe Biden did not say children should be able to ‘transition,’” the AP insisted.

A year and a half later, the fact-checkers are like cats in a litterbox. Because now, Biden’s team isn’t just supporting sex changes for children — they want your tax dollars to pay for it. In a moment of pure vindication for every conservative who was maligned, shamed, or suppressed, White House Press Secretary proved the president’s critics right — articulating the exact position that Big Tech treated as a lie. In her pushback to Alabama leaders, who are trying to ban the sterilizing surgeries, Psaki argued, “[G]ender-affirming healthcare for transgender kids is a best practice and potentially lifesaving.”

At APP, Terry Schilling was beside himself. “I… worked on exposing the Left on this issue for three years,” he said, “and [Jen Psaki]… she just… she blurted it out.” “Where’s our apology,” he wanted to know? “We had the evidence. [Biden’s] public pledges, media appearances, and his own lips all told us how extreme he was. But the corporate media and ‘fact check’ apparatus… were targeted at discrediting and slandering us.”

And the evidence isn’t just from Psaki, but — incredibly — Biden’s top dogs at Defense and Health and Human Services too. In a banner 24 hours for transgender activists, three of the president’s most important leaders all took turns reiterating Biden’s wild gender extremism this week. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra went out of his way to champion taxpayer-funded sex changes for kids, insisting on it several times in his House hearing — first in an exchange with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and then with Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ind.).

When Boebert asked if tax dollars had been “put forward to fund mastectomies, metonymies, and hysterectomies for sex reassignment purposes for minors with gender dysphoria?” Becerra replied that “Americans are entitled to receive healthcare services. They are entitled to receive any of the case you just mentioned.” Later, when Boebert pressed, Becerra told Congress to butt out. “I believe in supporting and protecting transgender youth. I believe that they, along with their parents and their caregivers, will make the best decisions, and I would really urge that politicians, like you, stay out of their business.”

Across the Capitol, Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) was having a similarly disturbing conversation with Defense Secretary Llyod Austin, who is believed to be quietly studying the impact of adding “nonbinary” or “polygender” servicemembers to the ranks. Austin repeated that he is “supportive of allowing any person that’s eligible and can meet the qualifications to serve their country.” “And who is involved in this study? ” Blackburn asked. “Are uniformed military personnel involved?” The Defense chief replied that he couldn’t “speak to” that.

“And what will the living arrangements be… for nonbinary service members? Are you all going to come back to us and ask for an appropriation for housing?” the Tennessee senator wanted to know. “How will you handle a service member who identifies as male on some days and female on other days?” Austin said he “didn’t care to speculate on what we’re going to ask… for…”

I’ll bet.

We’re living in an Isaiah 5:20 era. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” Joe Biden isn’t just wrong — he’s dangerous. The idea that anyone — let alone the president of the free world — would want to lock hurting children into a lifetime of misery is unconscionable. But, as APP asked in the ad no one was allowed to see, “If Joe Biden is willing to endorse sex changes for second-graders, what won’t he support?”

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.