Alabama lawmakers voted Thursday to criminalize medical care for transgender youth in transition, using the country’s most restrictive language and threatening doctors and nurses with up to 10 years in prison.
The legislation was passed as conservative lawmakers across the country have drawn attention to transgender and other LGBTQ issues. They have pursued a series of bills aimed at limiting what doctors call gender-affirming care, limiting what students are taught in the classroom about gender and sexuality, and banning some transgender students from participating in school sports.
On Thursday, Alabama lawmakers also introduced legislation that would require students to use restrooms and locker rooms for the gender listed on their original birth certificates. It also included an amendment that would limit classroom discussions about gender and sexuality in kindergarten through fifth grade — a version of what critics call a “Don’t Say Gay” measure that goes further than some other states.
But the medical care bill has emerged as one of the most far-reaching, as it would make it a crime to prescribe hormones or puberty-inhibiting drugs or perform gender-confirming surgery. It would also not allow educators and school nurses to “encourage or coerce” students to “withhold from their parents the fact that the minor’s perception of his or her gender or gender is inconsistent with the minor’s gender.”
Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has not said whether she will sign the legislation. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The measures have been condemned by both the transgender community and the medical establishment. In recent years, other states have considered, and in some cases passed, legislation aimed at preventing doctors and nurses from providing gender-affirming care to young people, although none of them have resulted in a crime.
Critics of the Alabama bill also argue that it could push lawmakers in other states to pursue such restrictions. “It’s an attempt to instill fear, but it urges other states to go to extremes,” said Shelby Chestnut, director of policies and programs at the Transgender Law Center.
Supporters of the legislation – dubbed the “Vulnerable Compassion and Protection Act for Children” – argue the measure was intended to protect children. In the bill, the sponsors argued that “minors, and often their parents, are unable to understand and fully appreciate the risks and implications to life, including permanent sterility, that result from the use of puberty blockers, sex hormones and surgical procedures.”
“Their brains are not designed to make long-term decisions about what these drugs and surgeries do to their bodies,” Wes Allen, the Republican legislator who introduced the legislation in the State House, said during the bill’s debate on Thursday.
The American Medical Association has attacked such measures as “government interference in medical practice that is harmful to the health of transgender and gender-diverse children and adults.”
In a letter to the National Governors Association last year, the organization said transition-related care was medically necessary and that forgoing it could have devastating consequences, as transgender people are up to three times more likely than the general population to come forward or be diagnosed. to get. with mental disorders and an increased risk of suicide.
Some activists fear that these measures could increase the risk.
“We will see more and more of our children withdrawing,” said TC Caldwell, director of community engagement for the Knights and Orchids Society, a Selma-based organization that provides resources to transgender youth. “I worry about people moving. Alabama is home. This is a home for so many of us who don’t want to leave and many of us who can’t afford to leave – who shouldn’t.”
More than a dozen states have considered legislation in recent years to block gender-affirming care for young people. Last summer, a federal court barred Arkansas from enforcing a law that made it the first state to ban doctors from giving sex-confirming hormone treatments, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery to anyone under the age of 18.
In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation last month that blocks certain forms of gender-affirming care for minors. Tennessee lawmakers also passed a bill this year that would ban providing hormone-related medication to children before puberty. But those measures are not considered crimes at the felony level.
Lawmakers in Idaho are considering legislation that is even more restrictive, making it a crime punishable by life in prison for parents to seek gender-affirming health care for their children, even if they did so by leaving the state. The bill has been passed in the House of Representatives.
“If we don’t allow minors to get tattoos, smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol or sign legal contracts,” said Bruce Skaug, the Republican legislator in Idaho who sponsored the legislation, “why would we allow them? make decisions to excise organs based on their feelings during puberty?”
The flurry of legislation and debate in state capitals represents the most significant push from groups opposed to transgender rights since the national campaign to restrict bathroom access in 2017 and 2018.
Pressure to limit rights for young transgender people
A growing trend. Actions that could change the lives of young transgender people are at the center of heated political debate across America. Here’s how some states approach the subject:
In February, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to investigate parents for child abuse if they give certain medical treatments to their transgender children — an effort that was temporarily halted by a court order last month.
Several states, including Alabama, have also banned transgender students who participate in interscholastic competitions from playing on teams that match their gender identities.
In late March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law banning public school teachers in some classes from teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity. The law has inspired lawmakers in other states to consider similar measures, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics. Ohio lawmakers have introduced a measure similar to Florida’s. And in Texas, the lieutenant governor this week said he plans to make such a move a priority.
Proponents of the transgender community argue that the legislation and surrounding rhetoric pose a danger to children who are already vulnerable because they struggle with their gender identity.
“Adolescence is hard enough,” said Felicia Scalzetti, an organizer of Hometown Action, an advocacy group that has protested the legislation. “Imagine going through it feeling out of your body.”
“Visibility is important,” they said. “Children should be able to see themselves without fear of retaliation.”
When Alabama lawmakers considered the gender-affirming medical care bill, they heard emotional testimony from at least one person expressing regret over the transition, as well as others who argued that lawmakers would punish doctors and nurses they consider essential for providing medical care. care they considered essential and life-saving.
“You’re asking me to one day handcuff these people who are heroes in my life and arrest the people who saved my daughter,” David Fuller, the father of a transgender daughter and a Gadsden police officer, told me. Ala., lawmakers at a hearing. “Please don’t ask me to do that.”
