Sofia Nelson, a former friend of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) from Yale Law School, on Thursday called the vice presidential nominee’s suggestion that transgender individuals are identifying as such to make themselves more marketable to elite colleges and universities “outrageous” and “offensive.”

Vance made the remark during a three-hour interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, during which the two men also criticized allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports and questioned scientific evidence supporting gender-affirming health care. At one point, Vance said he expects himself and former President Trump to win “the normal gay guy vote.”

“I think the MAGA movement thinks of minority identities as something we take on and off like a jacket,” Nelson, who is transgender, told CNN’s Laura Coates late Thursday in a television appearance after the Vance-Rogan podcast episode aired. “The only advantage that's flown to me from being transgender is that I get to live my authentic self, which I think is, you know,........

© The Hill