LGBT activists say new bills target transgender youth
Earlier DU thread: Florida Republicans submit 4 anti-gay bills on last day to file
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Source: Associated Press
LGBT activists say new bills target transgender youth
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and DAVID CRARY
January 18, 2020
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) At the urging of conservative advocacy groups, Republican legislators in more than a dozen states are promoting bills that focus on transgender young people. One batch of bills would bar doctors from providing them certain gender-related medical treatment; another batch would bar trans students from participating on school sports teams of the gender they identify with.
The proposed laws, if enacted, would bring devastating harms to the transgender community, said Chase Strangio, a transgender-rights lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.
He warned that the medical bans -- now pending in Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota and likely to surface elsewhere -- could trigger suicides among young people yearning to undergo gender transition.
The bills goals have been endorsed by several national conservative groups, including Alliance Defending Freedom and Eagle Forum.
Weve got lots of legislators working on this, said Gayle Ruzicka, an activist with Eagle Forums Utah chapter. We dont let this happen to children.
The bill recently introduced in South Dakota would make it a felony for medical providers to perform operations or administer hormone therapy to help minors change their gender. ...
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Read more:
https://apnews.com/4d024be0cd898b35fafe7003c4cb62c8