SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Lawmakers in Utah wasted no time this week returning to a hot topic in the Republican-led state capitol. It seeks to limit the medical options doctors are allowed to offer transgender youth.
On the second day of the legislative session, the commission began considering policies to prevent minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care. — Including surgery or puberty blockers. They also proposed to require schools to notify parents if they wanted to change the pronouns their children use, and if transgender people under the age of 18 could change the gender listed on their birth certificate. We have begun to consider a proposal to limit it to
Each bill passed the commission in a 5-2 party line vote.
Proposal reflects how red state lawmakers will continue Put issues related to gender, sexuality and youth at the center of the legislative agenda. As LGBTQ Americans have become more prominent in popular culture, some social conservatives have rallied on issues such as toilets. Sports teams transgender children are allowed to play on and healthcare their doctor can prescribe.
11 states this year Introduced a proposal to restrict doctors from prescribing puberty blockers, hormones or surgery to transgender children and teens, regardless of what their parents want. introduced transgender health care proposals in South Dakota. In this proposal, some legislators support puberty as a “natural cure” for gender identity disorder.
Senator Mike Kennedy, a Republican family physician sponsoring the Utah proposal, said health care policies related to gender and youth (sometimes reversible and sometimes irreversible) He said it didn’t make sense not to be subject to government oversight.
He acknowledged that the topic was emotional for families of transgender youth, but said it was the government’s responsibility to address the child’s consent and development issues.
“Taking care of kids doesn’t mean riding the latest radical wave,” he said. “We have to ask the question: Do children understand the long-term consequences of their decisions?”
“We cannot allow social policy to overtake science,” he added, arguing for more research on gender dysphoria and encouraging the health sector in countries such as Finland and Sweden to enact regulations governing health care for transgender youth. I mentioned how it was strengthened.
Questions about transgender youth and their health care align with another key Republican priority: parental rights. Jeri Blumet, a transgender woman and member of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, said the proposal was excessive government intervention in individual health care decisions.
The bill is “intended to protect transgender minors from doctors and parents, but its real effect is to keep this Congress and our state governments in line between parents, children, and doctors.” Put it down,” she said.
Greg Walker of Utah identifies himself as transgender because his daughter “can speak.”
For example, each time before she took puberty blockers or estrogens, the Walkers and their doctors did a thorough review and turned to experts like the American Academy of Pediatrics to “do it and I understand the risks of not doing it.
Walker said she was particularly concerned about the disproportionately high suicide rate among transgender youth and the potential harm of not getting treatment.
“As a parent. My number one priority is taking care of my child and ensuring my child’s safety,” Walker said.
In Utah, where a majority of residents and politicians are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lawmakers have for years focused on social issues, including pornography. and alcoholA Republican-majority Congress was formed last year Prohibition of transgender children in women’s sports.was subsequently challenged suspend in courtWhile the case is being reviewed, a panel of experts is making eligibility decisions for transgender youth.
One concern that arose during the eligibility determination debate was the use of birth certificates to verify an athlete’s gender, as transgender people routinely apply for changes.Utah Supreme Court Allowed Right to make changes two years in advance.
Republican Sen. Dan McKay, who led the youth sports ban prosecution last year, said limiting changes would help Utah implement its youth sports policy and only affect minors. Opponents who testified at the hearing said that changing identity documents is a matter of personal freedom and is highly emotional for transgender people who do not want to go out on a daily basis.
