Tennessee state lawmakers in the House passed legislation that would prohibit adults from assisting minors in accessing “gender-affirming care” treatments without parental consent. The bill, which was passed on Thursday, was initially passed in the state Senate.
The law is aimed at protecting children and parental rights from outside influences. It is a response to the trend of school districts and medical facilities helping kids “transition” to the opposite gender without the knowledge or consent of parents.
Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, has not commented publicly on the proposal but is expected to sign it into law.
Still, supporters of the bill are confident the governor will sign both bills into law.
Lee has yet to issue a veto as governor, and he approved the state’s ban on abortion and sex reassignment care for minors.
Tennessee Democrats opposed both bills and critics worried about the bills’ possible broad application.
Charges could stem from talking to a minor about a website on where to find care, to helping a minor travel to another state with looser restrictions on sex reassignment services.
Currently, Idaho is the only other state in the U.S. that has a law to crack down on adults who help facilitate abortions for minors. But Tennessee could become the first that applies penalties to adults relating specifically to gender-transition procedures and treatments.
Earlier this month, the state Senate approved the measure.
The proposed legislation, known as SB 2782, specifically targets any adult to “recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor” for the purpose of going through “gender-transition” procedures. Those convicted could face between three and 15 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
State Sen. Janice Bowling, a Republican, sponsored SB 2782, which would penalize any “adult who recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor” in Tennessee “for the purpose of receiving a prohibited medical procedure that is for the purpose of enabling the minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity, regardless of where the medical procedure is to be procured,” and make it classified as a felony.
Adults who break the law could face prison time of three to 15 years and fines of up to $10,000 under the Class C felony that the bill allots. The bill also “authorizes a person who violates this amendment to be held liable in a civil action for such violation.”
Not surprisingly, Democrats are already melting down about the measure. Allison Chapman, a legislative researcher, referred to the passage of the bill as “an absolutely horrifying development” and asserted that it “could lead to felony charges against any adult who provides information about gender affirming care to trans teens if they don’t have parental permission.”
State Sen. Jeff Yarbro claimed the bill would “regulate the types of conversations people can have with each other” and insisted that the state “shouldn’t be trying to violate constitutional rights.”
You can tell that critics of the proposal don’t have any substantive arguments against the measure by the deceptive rhetoric they are employing. Yarbro’s claim that the state is trying to regulate speech is absurd on its face. Is it against the law for child predators to use their speech to lure kids into sexual activity? Of course it is, and nobody except the sickest of people would claim the government does not have a role in preventing this.
The reality is that adults in education and the medical industry have been pushing “gender-affirming care” on minor children without the involvement of their parents, who should have the ultimate authority in making decisions about their healthcare and mental well-being.
What these people won’t say is that their true objections stem from the authoritarian notion that children do not belong to their parents – they belong to the state. They believe the government should make the final decisions about children. This is why they balk at the suggestion that parents should be involved in these matters.