Lawmakers debate ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors
Roughly 150 people gave passionate testimony Friday morning on Senate Bill 99, a proposal to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restrict the use of public resources for medical and social transitions. After more than five hours of commentary, opponents outnumbered proponents by more than two-to-one.
SB 99, sponsored by Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, echoes the lawmaker’s previous attempts in 2021 to restrict what LGBTQ advocates, medical providers and parents say are vital resources for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy for adolescents. Fuller’s two bills with similar goals failed to pass both chambers of the Republican-held Legislature last session.
The latest measure would go further than Fuller’s past bills, transgender advocates said Friday, by prohibiting public funds and facilities from supporting gender-affirming care, and its attempt to curb public employees from promoting social methods to recognize a young person’s gender identity, like clothing, hairstyles, names and pronouns. Those options, opponents said, can be life-saving for young people experiencing depression, anxiety and dysphoria because of an incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity.
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“I go to school like any other kid. I do well in school. I play guitar, snowboard and play soccer. I’m just a regular kid. And I’m trans,” said 13-year-old Helena resident River Meury. “I’m not the monster under your metaphorical bed that the proponents would make all trans, non-binary and two spirit people out to be. No one has ever tried to make me this way. I haven’t been infected by a virus … It’s simply who I am. It’s a feeling deep in my heart and soul.”
Opponents of the bill said that surgery for transgender minors nationwide is rare and, in the case of genital-altering procedures, not happening at all in Montana. Their testimony also pointed to recommendations from the nation’s leading medical associations and research studies showing that transgender minors who are affirmed in their gender expression and have access to the medical care they seek are at a substantially lower risk of suicide.
Those statistics were reinforced in emotional stories opponents shared with the committee. In a letter read by a lobbyist on their behalf, two Missoula parents said using medications to delay their transgender son’s puberty “saved our son’s life” and gave them time to learn about his health care options.