WASHINGTON (BP) — Fighting transgender ideology was part of the “common-sense revolution” advocated by President Donald Trump during his March 4 address to a joint session of Congress.

Lawmakers should pursue “forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body,” Trump said, adding, “Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.”

Referencing a failed assassination attempt last summer in Butler, Pa., Trump repeated his claim that he “was saved by God to make America great again.” He touted a flurry of activity during his first month back in the White House, including actions related to immigration, government waste and strengthening the military.

“We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years,” Trump said, “and we are just getting started.”

Other evangelical concerns addressed in the hour-and-40-minute speech included combating illicit material online and securing peace in Ukraine. Trump did not reference any traditional pro-life concerns, including abortion or in vitro fertilization (IVF), the subject of a recent executive order that drew some backlash from the pro-life community.

Responses to Trump’s speech ranged from praise by conservatives to at times raucous behavior by Democrats in the House Chamber. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was expelled from the chamber approximately five minutes into the speech for shouting at Trump in protest and refusing to relent when warned by House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Other Democrats held up signs that said “That’s a lie!” and “FALSE” at various junctures in the speech. Some Democratic congresswomen wore pink to signify their belief that Trump’s policies negatively affect women.

But Trump claimed he was the one protecting women. He noted his executive order “making it official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” and his executive order protecting female athletes from being forced to compete against biological males.

Present in the gallery was Payton McNabb, a former North Carolina high school volleyball player who was injured severely when a transgender opponent spiked a ball into her face.

Permitting biological men in women’s sports is “demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country,” Trump said. “We’re not going to put up with it any longer. What I’ve just described is only a small fraction of the common-sense revolution that is now, because of us, sweeping the entire world.”

Also present in the gallery was January Littlejohn, who sued the Leon County, Fla., school board for allegedly allowing her 13-year-old daughter to begin a gender transition without her parents’ consent. Trump called youth gender transitions “a form of child abuse” and noted his executive order “cutting off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth.”

Trump called on Congress “to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children,” a move that drew praise from Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).   

“One significant portion of President Trump’s speech was the need for a federal law to permanently prohibit radical transgender surgeries and interventions from being performed on children,” Leatherwood said. “We wholeheartedly agree with this effort. In fact, the ERLC has a legal brief in front of the Supreme Court defending a Tennessee state law that does just that. Congress should take up this challenge as soon as possible to end this madness that has already harmed too many children and families.”

To combat illicit online material, Trump advocated passage of the Take It Down Act, a bill that would make it a federal crime to publish or threaten to publish intimate imagery online without consent. The measure, which has been passed by the Senate, applies to real and computer-generated images, aiming to combat so-called revenge porn.

“Thank you to [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune and the Senate to criminalize the publication of such images online,” Trump said. “It’s terrible, a terrible, terrible thing. And once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law.”

On the international front, Trump said he received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stating he is ready to negotiate peace following a White House meeting between the two leaders Feb. 28 that went awry. Trump expressed his commitment to talk with both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war to negotiate a ceasefire.

The president’s discussion of foreign policy also included his efforts to secure the southern border and deport illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. He recognized the mother and sister of Laken Riley, a young woman murdered last year on the University of Georgia campus by an illegal immigrant. In her honor, Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act mandating federal detention of illegal immigrants arrested for burglary or theft.

Leatherwood commended Trump’s selection of guests for his speech, including teen cancer survivor D.J. Daniels, whom Trump named an honorary Secret Service agent.

“There were some touching moments in tonight’s presidential address before Congress,” Leatherwood said. “From honoring the memory of Laken Riley to recognizing our nation’s newest Secret Service agent, 13-year-old cancer survivor D.J. Daniels, the stories of these individuals remind us of the ties that bind us together as Americans.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) delivered the Democratic response to Trump’s speech. She advocated “shared values that [are] bigger than any one party,” including a vibrant middle class, strong national security and the preservation of democracy.

Slotkin’s only reference to Trump’s stands on cultural issues came as she claimed democracy is “at risk when the president pits Americans against each other, when he demonizes those who are different and tells certain people they shouldn’t be included.”

For Trump’s part, he promised to continue the fight against what he sees as an assault on American values.

“With God’s help over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher,” he said.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — David Roach is a writer in Mobile, Ala.)