(ConservativeSense.com) – In response to a North Carolina House committee advancing legislation to ban “gender-affirming care” for minors, transgender activists and allies gathered to speak out against the lawmakers on Tuesday.
As the Republican-majority House committee voted to pass a bill banning the performing of surgeries that remove reproductive organs of minors or alter their physical appearance, disruptors in the audience chanted in opposition to let them speak and that those supporting the bill have blood on their hands. If passed into law, North Carolina physicians will also be unable to refer minors to other providers for the procedures.
The bill was filed a month ago but wasn’t immediately taken up by the House chamber until a couple of days before the parliamentary deadline. The proposal will also ban the use of state funds for supporting surgical transition procedures for anyone under the age of 18. Doctors more often prescribe puberty blockers or hormones for minors rather than genital surgeries or double mastectomies, it does happen and Republicans are pushing back.
The main sponsor of the legislation is Republican Rep. Hugh Blackwell of Burke County, who said the intention of the bill is to protect children and teenagers from transgender surgeries, which do not constitute a medical emergency. Blackwell said minors aren’t old enough to consent to these practices and make such decisions.
Critics of the bill claim it is inspired by transphobia, and that by supporting it they are putting youth who consider themselves “gender nonconforming” at risk of suicide.
Another legislative debate surrounding the transgender issue is whether or not trans-identified males should be allowed to compete against females in girls’ and women’s sports. In April, a high school volleyball player in North Carolina urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would prevent transgender athletes from being allowed to participate in girls’ and women’s sports leagues.
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