Flurry of Bills Aim to Set Limits on Transgender Kids – And Their Doctors

This wave of state legislation follows 79 anti-transgender measures introduced in statehouses last year. Nearly all were defeated.

Montana lawmakers are considering two proposals: criminalizing doctors who treat transgender minors and banning transgender student-athletes from competing under their self-identified sex.

At least 10 other states are considering similar bills restricting transgender student-athletes this session: Iowa, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Bills to criminalize doctors for medically treating transgender children are also being considered in at least 10 other states: Iowa, Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Nebraska lawmakers are not considering bills this session on transgender athletes or treating gender dysphoria.

This push across the U.S. is happening despite a decision by President Joe Biden to lift LGBTQ restrictions in the military by executive order. It also comes after North Carolina lost an estimated $3.76 billion to boycotts following a 2016 law there requiring people to use the bathroom that matches their birth gender. That law has since been repealed.

Adam Edelman was motivated to tell the story of his child Sam as Montana lawmakers considered the state’s proposals.

Sam Edelman felt like a girl for as long as he could remember, his dad said. As Sam’s 18th birthday approached, and after years of researching hormone treatments, the high school senior scheduled an appointment with a doctor who treats transgender people.

The doctor said Sam was too young and thought it unlikely that any doctor would treat the Bozeman teen for the same reason. Ten months later, on Feb. 20, 2016, Sam died by suicide.

“Sam was devastated,” said Adam Edelman, recalling that visit with the doctor. “He lost hope.”

Laura Haynes, a retired faith-based clinical psychologist, is a major advocate of bills to ban medical intervention for transgender youth. She testified before a Montana House committee hearing that social influences and media glamorization have led to a huge increase in youth identifying as transgender.

Most would eventually embrace their birth sex if adults just “watched and waited,” said Haynes, who also supports conversion therapy for gays and lesbians.

She and proponents of the measures raise the specter of children undergoing dangerous and irreversible treatment. One Montana bill would fine doctors who provided treatment with medicines like puberty blockers to anyone under age 18 up to $5,000.

“Experimental treatment affirming gender identity leads to puberty blockers, toxic wrong-sex hormones, organs devoid of function or pleasure, and potential mutilation of sex organs,” Haynes said.

But the treatments are not experimental, and surgeries are not approved for youths under age 18, said Dr. Colleen Wood, one of four pediatric endocrinologists in Montana.

Medical association protocols call for no medical intervention before puberty. If youths persist in feeling distressed about their bodies once puberty begins, an arduous process commences.

If both parents consent and a mental health professional agrees, a teen might be approved for a puberty blocker prescription. Blockers are reversible, said Dr. Lauren Wilson, vice president of Montana’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Blockers are typically taken for five years before hormone therapy is considered.

The proposed sports bans on transgender athletes run counter to NCAA rules, which state that transgender females who were born male may compete on female teams if they have been taking hormones for one year.

Montana Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, a 20-year-old lawmaker and supporter of the Montana measure, was dismissive of potential consequences. “My House district is nearly 1,800 miles and a 27-hour drive from the NCAA” headquarters in Indianapolis, he said. “We will hold our own.”

Without legislative action, Mitchell said, he worried that women’s sports in the state will be ruined.

“Someone can wake up one morning and say, ‘I’m a man today,’ or ‘I’m a woman today,’ as a tactic to win in sports,” Mitchell said.