US election 2024: JD Vance claims children identify as trans to get into Ivy League schools easier

JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, has now had his turn on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and he used the interview as an opportunity to attack the trans community, claiming children are identifying as transgender so they can enter one of eight prestigious universities and colleges which are part of the Ivy League.

Similar to the UK’s Russell Group list of 24 “word-class” universities (which includes Oxford, Cambridge and Sheffield among others), the Ivy League comprises eight institutions considered “the most sought-after” in the US.

According to Times Higher Education, these are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale.

After the UFC commentator and comedian claimed there is an “enormous percentage Hollywood kids are trans” and celebrities with transgender children, Vance said: “It becomes a social signifier for a lot of parents, and we have to be honest about that fact.

“Think about the incentives, people are very good at rationalising things. If you are a middle class or upper middle class white parent, and the only thing that you care about is whether your child goes into Harvard or Yale, obviously that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper middle class kids, but the one way that those people can participate in the DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] bureaucracy in this country is to be trans.

“Is there a dynamic that’s going on where if you become trans, that is the way to reject your white privilege, right? That’s the social signifier – the only one that’s available in the hyper-woke mindset is if you become gender non-binary.”

Vance’s comments have been slammed as “disgusting” and “ridiculous” online, with trans people pointing out the reality of applying to academic institutions:

One Twitter/X user even pointed to research published by Business.com last year in which they found resumes submitted by job seekers with ‘they/them’ pronouns were “less likely to be considered a ‘good fit’ when reviewed by hiring managers” – with eight per cent less interest in their applications.

In the same interview, Vance also said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if him and running mate Donald Trump “won the normal gay guy vote” – a comment which has been seized upon by the Harris campaign and other critics:

It isn’t the first time that the Trump-Vance campaign has targeted the trans community, as during the Trump’s first – and only – presidential debate with Harris, he pushed unsubstantiated claims that his Democrat opponent “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison”.

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