POLITICS

Tennessee trans youth treatment ban continues to advance

Melissa Brown
Nashville Tennessean

A Republican-backed bill to ban transgender Tennessee youth from accessing puberty blockers, hormone treatments and other health care procedures passed out of a key Senate committee and continues to speed through the House, teeing the controversial bill up for a floor vote in the coming weeks.

Doctors would be prohibited under the law from providing any health care to minors "to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with" their sex assigned at birth. Medical professionals could lose their licenses to practice, and the legislation also would allow young people to sue their parents or medical providers for damages.

Republican lawmakers also initially proposed language to classify allowing a minor to seek treatments for gender dysphoria as child abuse or neglect

House Majority William Lamberth, R-Portland, filed an amendment Wednesday that stripped the abuse and neglect portion from the bill. Lamberth and the Senate companion bill sponsor — Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin — have argued the treatments cause irreversible harm that young people aren't able to consent to.

The House bill would require a "hard stop" of such treatments on March 31, 2024, which House Democrats on Wednesday said could be harmful to children in ongoing treatment.

Lamberth said if passed, the law would take effect this July, allowing children to "stairstep off of these dangerous drugs."

"Beyond March 31, that would no longer be an option," Lamberth said. "These children that are already on these hormones and puberty blockers are being harmed by them."

Bill sparks intense debate

The bill has sparked days of committee debates, often emotionally charged in standing room-only crowds. Democrats, LGBTQ advocates and families with experiences with these medical treatments have decried the legislation and argue the treatments help, not harm, trans youth living with gender dysphoria.

Elliott Atwood, a Williamson County teenager who has transitioned, pushed back on characterizations of gender transition treatments as rapid or easily obtained. Atwood called the process "slow," and said providers have become increasingly cautious.

Atwood urged lawmakers to vote against the bill.

"You think that you're protecting people like me, but you aren't," Atwood said. "Taking away our medical care won't prevent us from being transgender, but it could prevent us from being safe, healthy and happy."

State Rep. William Lamberth and State Senator Jack Johnson arrive for the Inauguration Ceremony of Governor Bill Lee at Legislative Plaza Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn.

Filed as the first piece of legislation for the 113th Tennessee General Assembly, the bill, HB01/SB01, has moved swiftly through both chambers, and could be up for a full vote as early as next week.

The legislation was proposed after controversy erupted last fall over Vanderbilt University Medical Center providing some gender-affirming treatments to teenagers. Conservatives alleged Vanderbilt pushed the treatments as a "money-making scheme."

Advancing legislation:Tennessee bill to ban trans treatments for minors advances in committees

Matt Walsh, a podcast host for the conservative site The Daily Wire, helped spark the controversy with Vanderbilt and organized a rally outside the Capitol last year. He attended Wednesday's House committee meeting and spoke in support of the bill.

Last week, a California teen told lawmakers she regretted transitioning in high school and said she has de-transitioned. She spoke in support of the bill and how she wasn't capable of making "informed medical decisions."

Vanderbilt started its gender-affirming care program in 2018. No gender-altering surgeries are performed on children, though the hospital said it has performed an average of five breast-reduction surgeries on minors older than 16 each year since the program started.

The House version of the bill now heads to the House Civil Justice Committee.

Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.