This Thursday, the Tennessee House of Representatives approved a law that penalizes adults who assist minors in seeking medical attention to change their gender without parental consent.
The legislation addresses a variety of violations, ranging from helping minors direct themselves to websites about where to find medical care to assisting them to travel to states with fewer restrictions on gender reassignment health care.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Bryan Richey, is based on protecting parental rights. It argues that parents should decide about their children’s medical procedures.
“This is a parent’s rights bill, nothing more, nothing less. At the end of the day, parents should have final say what medical procedures their children are receiving, and nobody else,” Richey said during the debate on the legislative proposal.
The legislation will now move to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature. Although the governor has not yet made public comments on the bill, members of his party are confident it will become law.
Tennessee is among the most active states in the promulgation of anti-woke legislation, including measures that prohibit the spending of state money on hormone therapy or sex-change procedures for prisoners, as well as legislation that requires public school employees to inform parents if their children are transgender students.
This move from Tennessee comes amid a divided political landscape in the United States on the issue of gender-affirming health care for minors. While some Democratic-led states are taking steps to protect healthcare providers, Republican-led states are pushing for restrictions in this area.
