Topeka Kan.
Republican lawmakers in Kansas approved a plan to end gender-affirming care for transgender youth early Friday morning, vowing to restore LGBTQ rights like other states with Republican-controlled legislatures. We wrapped up a week of enhanced efforts.
The Kansas House of Representatives voted 70-52 to pass a bill requiring the state’s medical board to revoke the license of doctors to provide gender-affirming medical care to minors. and suicide prevention. The Senate then approved the bill by her 23-12 vote and submitted it to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
The governor promised to protect the rights of LGBTQ youth and reject any action “intended to hurt or discriminate against you” in lobbying the state legislature last month, so expect to reject it. It has been. Supporters were well short of his two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress needed to overturn the veto.
LGBTQ rights advocates believe they are seeing, at least legally, a nationwide effort to exclude transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and gender fluid people from American society. Dr. Beth Oller, a family physician in a small town in northwest Kansas who provides gender-affirming care, saw Republican lawmakers go “for the dog whistle” to unite the party.
“This one was a winner because we found it preferable to disenfranchise a population that was small and didn’t affect most people,” she said in an email Thursday night. can deceive themselves with groupthink and pretend this is protection rather than hate, but we know the truth.”
Federal judges blocked the enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, while 13 other states enacted laws banning gender-affirming care for minors. We have pursued hundreds of proposals to push back the rights.
Proponents of the Kansas ban argue that it is to protect medical care for children that have side effects or that cannot be reversed later. , claims that only adults can consent to treatment.
Wichita Republican Rep. Susan Humphries said, “We’re all changing our minds about our kids right now. ‘How many kids know what they want to be when they grow up?'”
Care that falls under the bill includes drugs that block puberty and hormone therapy. While the bill would not prevent transgender youth from receiving counseling or psychiatric treatment, the measure would “confirm a child’s perception of the child’s gender” if it differs from the gender assigned at birth. applies to acts performed or “caused” for the sake of
“The way I’m going to let some of this go is a surgical procedure,” said Rep. Steve Howe, a Republican from Central Kansas. “I agree that every child has value. That’s why I support this bill.”
A vote in the Kansas legislature on Thursday passed a “Parental Rights” bill that would allow lawmakers to keep children away from lessons and activities that include LGBTQ-themed materials, allowing transgender students on school trips. It came after passing another measure restricting room arrangements.
Republicans on Tuesday approved a sweeping toilet bill that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their driver’s licenses. Revoked Kelly’s veto on any bill prohibiting it.
State Senator Mike Thompson said, “People are finally fed up with this push to push their kids in the wrong direction. I think it’s a backlash from parents who see this as a big problem.” Republicans in the conservative Kansas City area who supported all measures. “For hundreds, hundreds, thousands of years, I don’t think this was a problem.
Humphries suggested that social media-induced “social contagion” helped “confused” young people increase their desire to transition to another gender, according to multiple studies. I am repeating my thoughts.
For over a decade, transgender medical care for children and teens has been available in the United States and endorsed by major medical associations.
“Gender-affirming medicine saves lives,” said Jordan Smith, Kansas City-area resident, self-identified gender fluid, and leader of the Kansas chapter of Parasol Patrol, a group that advocates for LGBTQ youth. Speaking after a trans rights rally in the state capitol. last week.
“You know, kids are trying to figure out who they are and they should look to adults for that guidance,” they added. No, it’s not. you are just confused. ”
After last week’s transgender rights rally, Ian Benalcazar, a 13-year-old transgender living in northeastern Kansas, said his decision to transition socially to male was “one of the biggest decisions of my life.” said it is.
“I feel freer and more of myself, which has allowed me to make many great connections with people and to be who I really am,” he said. I was.
Oller, a doctor in northwestern Kansas, said some patients were “feared” of missing out on treatment, and she could turn her small town into a mob if laws were passed to ban gender-affirming treatments. I am afraid that I will be forced to leave.
But she also said she would probably sue the state, “because I’m not going to lie about this.”
