Important Takeaways:
- Kansas’s GOP legislature voted Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, becoming the 27th state to restrict access to treatment.
- Republicans, with supermajorities in both chambers, easily cleared the two-thirds majority threshold needed to override Kelly’s veto in a set of votes that caught some Democrats off-guard.
- State Senate Bill 63, which is set to take effect later this month, aims to broadly prevent health care professionals from providing gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, to minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
- The measure slashes state support for transition-related care and puts doctors who continue providing it in jeopardy of losing their medical licenses.
- In a joint statement, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R) and House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) said they voted Tuesday “in honor of the children Governor Kelly failed to protect with her repeated vetoes of this sensible legislation.”
- Responding to the veto, Kelly said, “It is inappropriate that the Legislature dictate to parents how to best raise their children.”
- The legislature’s vote comes after President Trump signed an executive order to end federal support for gender-affirming care, which a federal judge blocked last week. The administration has broadly denied the existence of transgender people, removing transgender resources from government websites and declaring the U.S. recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
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Important Takeaways:
- Georgia’s state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would cut off public funding for gender-affirming care for adults, but the future of the legislation remains cloudy in the state House, one illustration of how the Republican-controlled swing state has been slow to join the blizzard of laws targeting transgender people.
- Senators voted 33-19 to pass Senate Bill 39, which would bar state money for gender-affirming care in state employee and university health insurance plans, Medicaid and the prison system.
- The measure was pushed by state Sen. Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican, who repeatedly characterized the bill as only affecting gender-affirming surgeries for minors until he acknowledged under questioning from Democrats that it actually covers a broad range of care for adults as well.
- “This bill is saying we’re not going to use state taxpayer dollars to pay for transgender surgeries,” Tillery said.
- If enacted, the bill would put Georgia, which previously partially banned gender-affirming care for minors, at the forefront of restricting funding for gender-affirming care for adults.
- “It doesn’t say if you’re an adult, you can’t have transgender care,” Tillery said. “It says if you’re an adult, you can’t use state taxpayer dollars to have transgender surgeries.”
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Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.
Important Takeaways:
- The restrictions are spreading quickly despite criticism from medical groups and advocates who say they are further marginalizing transgender youth and threatening their health.
- DeSantis on Wednesday signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict pronoun use in schools and force people to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex assigned at birth in some cases.
- At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia.
- A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors is awaiting action before Republican Gov. Mike Parson in Missouri.
- Nebraska Republicans on Tuesday folded a 12-week abortion ban into a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, potentially clearing the way for a final vote on the combined measure as early as this week.
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