Vehemently anti-trans Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) went on a bizarre and inaccurate rant about trans representation on Netflix during an antitrust hearing about the company’s potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets.

Hawley peppered Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos with questions about why the streaming platform provides “content for children [that] promotes a transgender ideology.”

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He claimed “almost half” of Netflix content for young children “promotes a transgender ideology agenda,” a phrase he most likely used to mean the inclusion of a trans character or the mention of being trans. Nevertheless, Sarandos said he didn’t “have any idea where that number would come from” and called the statistic “inaccurate.”

Hawley did not offer a source for his data, but he may be referring to a report from the anti-LGBTQ+ group Concerned Women for America (CWA) that claimed “41% of G-rated series, and 41% of TV-Y7-rated series on Netflix contain LGBTQ+ content.” Even if that were true (though it should be questioned based on the clear bias of the organization), the phrase LGBTQ+ implies representation of a wide variety of identities, not specifically trans characters.

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In December, CWA urged the administration to scrutinize Netflix’s children’s content ahead of the streamer’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. CWA declared the platform an “active driver” of the so-called “LGBTQ agenda.”

Here's Josh Hawley going on a several-minute rant about trans people existing in Netflix content: www.youtube.com/live/447CgcA…

— Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) 2026-02-03T21:59:45.173Z

Hawley then claimed gender-affirming care for youth is “incredibly detrimental,” despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. He then complained that he and his wife have been forced to pre-screen all children’s Netflix content before allowing their three young children to watch it.

“I don’t want my kids being pushed an agenda about their sexuality or gender identity when I have not had the opportunity first to discuss it with them and to form them in that,” he said. “And frankly, on behalf of parents around the country, it offends me that Netflix is pushing this content at parents in what seems to be a very coordinated, thought-through, planned-out agenda in a way that frankly, I think, undermines parents.”

Sarandos told Hawley that Netflix has “state-of-the-art tools for you to manage those choices for your children and to block any title that you might be offended by for any reason.”

He then reminded Hawley that other parents may have different values. “We are parents at Netflix as well. We share all your concerns about raising kids and also the ability to raise them as you see fit in your household – and anyone else’s household as well.”

But Hawley only seemed to care about the company’s lack of capitulation to his own personal beliefs.

“My concern is that you don’t share my values or those of many other American parents,” he said, “and you want the United States government to allow you to become one of the largest, if not the largest, streaming monopolist in the world. I think we oughta be concerned about what content you’re promoting.”

Hawley also referred to trans representation as a “highly sexualized, highly controversial… agenda,” a common transphobic stereotype used to imply that trans people aren’t people like everyone else.

Sarandos explained, “We feature a wide variety of stories and programs to meet a wide variety of people’s tastes.”

CNN characterized the recent antitrust hearing as a mere “culture-war fight over ‘wokeness.'” Conservative lawmakers focused their questioning on DEI and “woke” content.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) reportedly called Netflix “a propaganda outlet pushing one particular political view with much greater market power.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) accused Netflix of having “the wokest content in the history of the world.” He claimed the “overwhelmingly woke” content is “not reflective of what the American people want to see.”

“Why in the world would we give a seal of approval or a thumbs up to make you the largest behemoth on the planet related to content?”

Republicans have been coming after Netflix’s LGBTQ+ content throughout the past year. In October, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced she canceled her Netflix subscription after an episode featuring a trans character in a show that Netflix canceled in 2022.

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A woman who sued her doctors over a breast removal surgery she received when she was 16 and identified as transgender has been awarded $2 million in damages, marking the first time a detransitioner has won a medical malpractice lawsuit over the care they received as part of their transition.

Multiple right-wing news outlets are calling the decision “historic,” but even the woman’s lawyer is downplaying its significance, insisting the case was never about “the legitimacy of gender-affirming care.”

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As The Free Press first reported, on Friday, a jury in New York State sided with 22-year-old Fox Varian, who sued her psychologist and a plastic surgeon, accusing them of failing to adhere to standards of care around gender-affirming care for minors. According to the New York Times, Varian claimed that her doctors did not obtain adequate consent or adequately inform her of the risks associated with a double mastectomy she received in 2019 and came to regret.

As multiple outlets have reported, Varian suffered from depression, anxiety, social phobia, eating disorders, and body-image issues as an adolescent, and was diagnosed with autism at 14. Court documents reportedly show she began questioning her gender at 15. She changed her name multiple times, used he/him pronouns, began binding her breasts, and told her psychologist, Kenneth Einhorn, that she wanted to transition.

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According to both the New York Times and the Epoch Times, Einhorn, who has no formal training in treating transgender patients, claimed in court that Varian insisted she needed top surgery. In October 19, nine months after Varian expressed a desire to transition, Einhorn referred her to plastic surgeon Simon Chin.

Crucially, however, Einhorn referred to Varian’s diagnosis as “body dysmorphia” rather than gender dysphoria in his letter to Chin. He also reportedly referred her to an LGBTQ+ nonprofit center for additional counseling, where Varian continued to express uncertainty about her gender. However, Einhorn never followed up with the center. According to the Epoch Times, both Einhorn and Chin admitted in court that had they known about Varian’s continued uncertainty, they would not have referred her for the surgery or performed it.

As both the Epoch Times and the New Republic noted, the jury was not asked to issue a verdict on whether minors should receive gender-affirming surgeries — such procedures are already exceptionally rare — but whether Einhorn and Chin had adhered to accepted standards of care.

Dr. Loren Schechter, president-elect of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which sets medical standards for gender-related care, even testified as an expert witness on behalf of Varian. Schechter testified that he believed the Einhorn and Chin’s decision to approve the surgery was based on “assumption and inference,” according to the New York Times.

“This case was a medical malpractice case, not a referendum on gender-affirming care,” WPATH said in a statement following the verdict. “When care is delivered ethically and responsibly within these guidelines, the integrity of the field is strengthened.”

Similarly, Varian’s lawyer, Adam Deutsch, issued a statement echoing arguments he’d made in court. “This was never a debate over the legitimacy of gender-affirming care,” he said, according to the Times. “It was about whether medical professionals met the standards that covered their own profession.”

Einhorn and Chin “just didn’t have the experience to deal with someone questioning their gender identity,” Deutsch added. “At the bottom of all of this was a lack of collaboration between the two of them, and lack of communication to follow through.”

At the same time, Benjamin Ryan, an independent journalist who covered the case for The Free Press and who has been critical of gender-affirming care for minors, suggested in a video promoting his reporting that the verdict “could help reshape the legal landscape around youth gender medicine.”

Describing the jury’s verdict as “decisive and historic,” Ryan said that Varian’s case “marks a turning point” and “could contribute to a reckoning over lax assessment standards by care providers when they consider whether irreversible medical interventions should be offered or given to minors with gender dysphoria.”

He said the case “signals a growing wave of detransitioners turning to the courts” and noted that by his count, nearly 30 similar civil cases are currently working their way through courts across the U.S. But as the Times noted, it remains unclear what impact Varian’s case will have on other cases.

Following Friday’s verdict, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) released a statement advising against conducting “gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery” on people under the age of 19. While the February 3 statement does not mention the Varian case, as the Times notes, it marks the first time a major American medical association has shifted its guidance on gender-affirming care for minors.

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