JD Vance, a first-term senator from Ohio will be President Trump’s running mate and Vice Presidential pick for this year’s election.

The 39-year-old became famous after publishing his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and for his pro-life stance against abortion and gender ideology. 

He introduced “a bill in the Senate that would criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender minors.”

Vance’s bill cobbles together numerous restrictions on gender-affirming care, mirroring the language of state-level bills that Republican-led legislatures have passed in the last three years.

Even the name of the bill, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, echoes similar Republican-introduced legislation to “save” or “protect” kids and women from the threat of “transgenderism,” evoking rhetoric that dates back to anti-gay activist Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign in the 1970s and beyond.

Vance has criticized the role that gender-affirming medical care plays and cast doubt on whether it helps transgender kids’ mental health, despite widespread mainstream medical consensus that it does. His bill would not only imprison health care providers who prescribe puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy, but also calls for barring federal Medicaid programs and government-employed medical providers from providing gender-affirming care

In addition, the bill would expand anti-trans policies in novel ways: It would prohibit colleges, universities, and other higher education institutions from offering “instruction in gender-affirming care” for people of any age and would call for deporting immigrants who provide transition care to minors.

The legislation hasn’t moved since it was introduced last year. But if Trump were elected this fall, with Vance as his vice president, these policies would be more likely to become a reality.

Trump has already promised to enact a number of policies as early as day one that would significantly curtail LGBTQ+ rights.

The announcement was made after the attempted assassination of President Trump. 

Gender ideology is a hot topic in the lead up to the November election and will play a significant role in every debate.