Republican State Reps. Bill Dean and Ron Hood say the bill is still being drafted. They held a news conference Tuesday in Columbus with supporters of the bill, including two parents, Columbus-based pediatrician John Wells Logan and conservative activist group Citizens for Community Values.
According to the lawmakers, the “Protect Vulnerable Children Act” would levy legal penalties against doctors who provide the gender-based treatments to those under 18.
“What we’re trying to accomplish in this bill is that these procedures cannot be done. It would cause sterilization, irreparable damage to children that can’t be reversed,” Hood told media at the news event in Columbus. “That’s what makes this such a problem. Decisions made in childhood that are very, very permanent and cause sterilization cannot be reversed.”
Some medical and LGBTQ rights groups have sounded staunch opposition to the proposed law, however, noting that gender reassignment surgeries for those under 18 are exceedingly rare and that hormone therapies are generally reversible. Some physicians and mental health experts also say that such therapies can lower risk of suicide among minors who identify as transgender.
“Evidence-based policy statements and clinical guidelines––published by every mainstream pediatric medical professional association––speak for themselves and are paving the path for minors to receive care that promotes the healthy outcomes the youth deserve,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital THRIVE Gender Development Program Medical Director Dr. Scott Leibowitz said in a statement.
Leibowitz argues that the legislation would put doctors in a position of choosing between the Hippocratic Oath and the law.
Ten other states have recently considered or are still considering similar bans, including Kentucky. A bill banning procedures related to gender transition for minors passed the South Dakota House of Representatives last month, but was voted down in the state Senate.
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This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2020.
I know because I am transgender from my childhood every time someone said that I should be playing with GI Joes instead of dolls my heart sunk to my stomach like when you get in trouble or your parents catch you in the act of doing something wrong I thought that five or six times a day every day of my life it was the most horrible horrible feeling to come over a child every day of their life much less repeatedly every single day that’s at least conservative lawmakers are confirming what happened to these children. They don’t realize it’s not a choice the only choice it’s made is if you’re going to have the balls to be who you truly are or are you going to live a live the rest of your life
Just further evidence of the Ohio House being full of bigoted, irrelevant, hilljacks. Always working on stopping problems that aren’t even problems. Doctors aren’t showing up at people’s homes talking kids into becoming transgender, this isn’t something that’s forced on anyone.
I knew at a very young age that I was straight and into the opposite gender, why is it inconceivable that someone could know that they weren’t at the same age? That’s the problem with remedial, hillbilly, bigots, they’re either not intelligent enough, or just flat out refuse, to even try and take someone else’s POV into account.
Please waste more taxpayer time and money on bullshit like this.
Kids should wait until they are adults before they mutilate their sexual organs or start taking someone else’s hormones. This is not bigoted. Its thoughtful and considerate.
You really don’t know what you’re talking about, ever heard of people being born with ambiguous sex organs, internal and external sex organs not matching? It’s a real thing that happens, and doctors and their parents are often left to decide the sex of the child, and they often get it wrong. A lot of those people end up transgender and/or with mutilated sex organs already, because of a decision that was made for them, without any input from them. Any protections in place for people like that in this so called thoughtful, compassionate law? Probably not, knowing the idiots in the State House.
Bigoted morons in the State House need to stick to State Government business, this is not that. Unless you have a degree in medicine or child psychology your input is invalid, unnecessary and may do more harm than good.
Bro, stop calling everyone “bigots”. The case you used in your argument about intersex people is very uncommon. This, as you are very fucking aware, is not the intended target of this bill. It’s meant to stop children from mutilating themselves.
Why are you so keen to sexualize (or gender) children anyways? Why does their choice of toys indicate to you that they need alternative hormones into their body or to superficially change their sex? You are so weird.
Bro, I’ll use whatever language I please to describe the situation, the Ohio State House is known for being full of hillbilly bigots. Nobody wants to sexualize children here, that’s your hang up and your odd choice of words. Also, I’m definitely not the guy above who talked about playing with dolls, look at our writing styles, they are completely different.
Now, rare or not, the situation I laid out above does happen. A person like that would still be subject to this same law, unless the bill specifically states otherwise, meaning there’d be no help for them until they hit adulthood. Why are you so keen to interfere in what should be a private matter between a child, their doctor and their parents? Why do you keep bringing up genital mutilation, which is a completely different issue that has nothing to do with this? Sounds to me like you’re the one fixated on children and their genitals, my friend.
My point is as I stated above, this isn’t a matter for you, or me, or the dummies in the State House to decide. It should be a private matter between children, their doctors and therapists, and parents. Nobody is running around giving children sex changes willy nilly, as you’re implying, the people who end up having these operations or hormones have often exhausted other options, and they still feel like they were born into the wrong body. Who are you, or the bigots at the State House, to tell them they have to suffer for another 10 years or more?
This is yet another example of reactuonary idiots on the right trying to force their beliefs on people who don’t share them, and to turn those beliefs into a law which effects everyone. Don’t want your kid to have a sex change, don’t allow it, simple. Why is a law needed? It isn’t, mind your own business and worry about your own children, and let others do the same. If that attitude makes me “weird” bro, so be it.
Bro, you’re fucking deranged. You are advocating for kids to change their sex. “
“Dont want your kid to have a sex change, dont allow it. Simple.” Dude, your logic is non existant. You are advocating for children to change their sex and cut off their penises or breasts even if their parents say no. Why are you doing this?
You should probably try reading that again, bro. It says the exact opposite of your interpretation, work on your reading comprehension.
I thought I was pretty clear but obviously you need a little help, here:
“Don’t want your kids to have a sex change, don’t allow it.”
Means:
“If you personally do not want your child to have a sex change, then do not allow your child to have a sex change.”
Pretty simple really.
Bro.