Montana bill that would deny teens gender-affirming care passes Senate hurdle in fiery hearing
Fuller immediately used a metaphor to compare a person who seeks to transition their gender to a theoretical veteran who “decided” they identified as a legless amputee and wanted their legs cut off. It was the first reference to amputation of the hearing and turned up the gas under what would become a boiling pot on the other side of the aisle.
“There is nothing natural or healthy about pumping children full of puberty blockers, or cross-sex hormones, or steroids, or performing sterilizing surgeries on them,” Fuller added, again telling senators, as he did in committee, that his bill was about protecting children.
Flowers immediately rose to ask the Senate to stop referencing amputation, saying there was nothing in the bill that referred to it, nor was it how the medical community referred to gender transition surgery.
Throughout the hearing, Democrats implored their majority counterparts to kill the bill, saying it violated Montanans’ individual freedoms as well as the Montana and U.S. Constitutions. They said it would put federal Medicare and Medicaid funding at risk because a person’s gender identity is a federally protected class.
“This isn’t just about health care and counseling for transgender youth, as critical as that is,” said Sen. Christopher Pope, D-Bozeman. “It’s about health care for 300,000 Montana citizens paid in large part by the federal government in multi-billions of dollars … which is being put at risk by this unconstitutional, and in my opinion, misguided law.”