Ramaswamy and transgender student faced off over gender-affirming care. How it went.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy faced a challenge to his position on gender-affirming care during a recent campaign stop in Grinnell College.

Ramaswamy has said at campaign events across Iowa that gender transition therapy should be banned for minors because they may regret it later.

During a town hall event with Ramaswamy at a public library near the college Nov. 20, Grinnell sophomore Victor Thorne, 20, held a sign that read “Grinnell College Free Speech Club.” At the start of his speech, Ramaswamy saw the sign.

“Free Speech Club in the back,” Ramaswamy said. “I love that. We’ve got to have more of that in this country. Speak openly. It’s a Free Speech Club in here tonight.”

Thorne confronted Ramaswamy, arguing that “youth gender transition can in fact be immensely beneficial to a number of people.” Thorne said he transitioned at age 16.

The Chapel Hill, North Carolina, native, challenged Ramaswamy to take a “more moderate approach” and let families decide the best course of treatment.

Ramaswamy told Thorne several contradictions lie at the heart of the LGBTQ+ movement. The LGBTQ+ movement has "religious qualities" and fills a void for some young people, just like a belief in God does for other people, Ramaswamy said.

“We’re a free country. As a fully grown adult, you’re free to identify how you want, dress how you want, live how you want, as long as you’re not harming somebody else,” Ramaswamy said. “But kids aren’t the same as adults. Imposing that ideology on kids is a problem for them.”

Ramaswamy described meeting a person assigned female at birth who had hysterectomy as a teen and later regretted it. Another woman he met had a mastectomy and later regretted it, Ramaswamy said.

“They’re now in their 20s,” Ramaswamy said. “I don’t think we should have allowed them as a society to make those decisions. You can’t get a tattoo by the age of 18. I don’t think you should be able to undergo genital mutilation or chemical castration before the age of 18.”

"Regret" about transition is extremely rare, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality, a Washington-based nonprofit. A 2014 study of 55 adults who received gender-affirming care as adolescents found none regretted their decision to transition from the sex they were assigned at birth, according to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit devoted to helping LGBTQ+ youths.

"Gender-affirming care has been shown to reduce suicide ideation and attempts in transgender individuals, along with social support, familial support and reduction of discrimination," according to The Trevor Project.

Thorne said transitioning made him much more “stable emotionally.” Thorne said he dropped out of high school but once he started transitioning, he applied for college and “got my stuff together.”

“My relationship with my family is a lot better,” Thorne said.

Thorne, who leans Libertarian, agrees with Ramaswamy that Americans need a new commitment to freedom of expression. Ramaswamy said that identities around politics are turning people away from each other. People need other things to talk about, he said.

“He’s right that we need to focus more on what unites us,” Thorne said. “We need to socialize outside of politics and have a stronger national identity.”

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.