Kansas passes law limiting medical care for transgender children | The USA Print

Republican lawmakers from Kansas approved a plan to end gender-affirming care for transgender minors early Friday, capping a week of intense efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights as is occurring in other states with GOP-controlled legislatures.

The Kansas House of Representatives approved by a vote of 70 to 52 a bill that would force the state medical board to revoke the licenses of doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors, even though many professionals who treat trans youth consider such care vital to protect their mental health and prevent suicides. The Senate gave the green light to the measure by 23 votes in favor and 12 against. The law will now go to the governor, Democrat Laura Kelly.

Kelly is expected to veto the law after last month promising LGBTQ youth that he would protect their rights and reject any measure “that is intended to harm or discriminate against them.” Supporters of the measure fell short of the two-thirds majority in both chambers that would have prevented a veto.

LGBTQ rights advocates believe there is a nationwide effort to remove transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, or gender fluid people from American society, at least legally.

Thirteen other states have enacted laws against gender-affirming care for minors, though federal judges have blocked their enforcement in Alabama and Arkansas. So far this year, Republican lawmakers have filed several hundred bills across the country against LGBTQ rights.

Supporters of the ban in Kansas allege that they seek to protect minors from a medical attention that it has side effects and cannot be reversed and they state that only adults and not the child’s father can consent to undergo the treatment.

Treatments outlined in the bill include puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapy. While the initiative would not prevent trans youth from receiving psychiatric counseling or therapy, it does affect acts performed or “causing” acts “to affirm the child’s perception of sex” if it differs from the gender assigned at birth.

In USAmedical treatments for transgender children and adolescents have been available for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.