A new Public Health bill that has been drafted by two Republican lawmakers aims to ban gender transition procedures on children. The “Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act” prohibits any medical treatment that “alters a child’s hormonal balance” and procedures “that remove their organs to enable the minor to identify as a gender different from their biological sex.”
If the bill becomes law, it will provide some of the nation’s strongest protections for minors within the realm of “gender affirming care.” Lamberth said, “Through the passage of House Bill 1/Senate Bill 1, Tennessee will protect vulnerable children who cannot give informed consent for adult decisions they aren’t ready for.”
The summary of HB0001/SB0001 sponsored by Representative William Lamberth (Portland – District 44) and Senator Jack Johnson (Brentwood – District 23) states, “As introduced, prohibits a healthcare provider from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
The bill also states that surgical gender affirming care can lead to minors becoming irreversibly sterile, have increased risk of disease or illness, or suffer from adverse or sometimes fatal psychological consequences. The bill continues, “Moreover, the legislature finds it likely that not all harmful effects associated with these types of medical procedures when performed on a minor are yet fully known, as many of these procedures… are experimental in nature and not supported by high-quality, long-term medical studies.
