Arkansas House panel OKs bans on trans youth treatments

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas House panel on Tuesday advanced legislation banning gender-confirming health care for minors, despite opponents warning it would further stigmatize and harm transgender youth.

The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee endorsed the measure on a 12-4 vote, sending it to the full House for a vote.

The measure would prohibit doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment or surgery to minors, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment.

The sponsor of the measure said it’s intended to protect minors from life-altering treatments before they’re ready and said they could still seek counseling.

“These kids need real health care. They are truly vulnerable,” Republican Robin Lundstrum told the panel.

But opponents of the bill, including social workers, parents of transgender children, and transgender youth, told the panel the measure would do more harm than good. One mother said she was worried her transgender son would kill himself if he could not continue receiving his hormone treatments.

Kirsten Sowell, a social worker, said she has worked with transgender youth who have tried to kill themselves multiple times before being able to get the treatments the legislation would ban.

“This bill only furthers harm for teens and absolutely does not accomplish the supposed goal to keep teens safe,” Sowell said.

The measure is among 74 bills pending in state legislatures targeting transgender people, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Twenty-five of those measures are aimed at limiting care for transgender people, the group said.

A day earlier, an Arkansas Senate panel advanced legislation that would prohibit transgender girls and women from competing in sports that conform with their gender identity.