Politics

Tennessee Legislature Passes Ban On Child Sex Changes

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A Tennessee bill barring sex change procedures for minors passed in the state Senate Thursday and is headed to Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s desk, a spokesman for the state’s Senate Republican Caucus told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The legislation, which passed in the state’s House of Representatives last week, bars healthcare providers from administering cross-sex treatments to minors including surgeries, devices and drugs such as puberty blockers and cross sex hormones. Tennessee Republicans pledged to ban the procedures in the fall after the Daily Wire reported that the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) was giving children hormonal drugs as part of the gender transition process at as young as 13 and performing mastectomies on adolescent girls to help them present as male.

As a dad, I am firm in my commitment to defending children from the lies and irreparable harm of gender affirming care.

Senate Bill 1 would press pause on physically altering kids until they are adults. More here → https://t.co/MjbE7gkLgR

— Jack Johnson (@SenJohnson) February 17, 2023

“Gender dysphoria is a mental health condition that should be treated with love and understanding, therapy, and other appropriate interventions – just as we treat other mental health disorders,” Republican Tennessee state Rep. Wiliam Lamberth said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Under no circumstance should we ever allow a child to undergo a procedure that destroys their normal, healthy development. I appreciate the wisdom of the committee members who recognize that this legislation protects minors from the negative consequences of adult decisions they aren’t ready for.”

Videos unearthed by the DW showed a VUMC employee explaining how profitable hormone treatments and gender surgeries would be for the hospital, and in another video an employee expressed that health care workers with religious or conscientious objections to performing those procedures were unwelcome at the institution, though the hospital denied this was the case in a statement. The program also boasted about linking transgender patients, including children, with “Trans Buddies” who monitored doctors’ use of preferred pronouns and advocated for the patients throughout the medical process.

VUMC halted the medical procedures in September at the request of state legislators.

Lee’s office declined to comment on whether the governor would sign the bill. VUMC did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.