The Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill to limit transgender interventions for those under the age of 18. House Bill 470 prevents healthcare professionals from administering drugs such as puberty blockers, or performing medical interventions such as gender reassigment surgery on children under the age of 18 who identify as transgender and will "require an investigation of any report of provision of gender transition services."
The bill, which would take effect on January 1, 2024 if supported by the Senate, also calls for the "revocation of the provider's license if confirmed, and termination of public funding for a public employee."
In addition, it is requested that "providers be jointly and severally liable for all damages and costs sustained for providing gender transition services or aiding and assisting a person under the age of 18 years to consider or to obtain gender transition services." Along with this, the bill would "provide defense to providers refusing to provide services."
The objective of the bill, assured its main sponsor, Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-Waddy), is protecting minors: "It is only when children are subjected to medicalization, hormones and life-altering surgery, that their mental health worsens. It is not good to start with. It worsens with these procedures."
Tennessee vetoes transgender interventions
The state of Tennessee passed its bill to ban gender interventions last month. The law will become a reality as it also has the support of the Senate, which considered that the regulation is designed to protect minors:
It helps the minor children who otherwise might be subjected to surgical procedures that remove body parts or being prescribed medications that make permanent changes to a child’s body.
This law joins a similar measure that South Dakota passed on precisely the same day that the Volunteer State ratified its proposal. Republicans in Alabama, Arizona, Utah, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas also supported similar measures, which passed and limited or banned such treatments in their respective territories.
