The South Dakota House advanced a bill Wednesday evening that would ban physicians in the state from treating transgender children with gender-affirming care — including hormones, puberty blockers, and gender confirmation surgery.
Lawmakers voted 46-23 in favor of House Bill 1057; it now moves to the State Senate as early as next week. Under the proposed law, doctors could be charged with a misdemeanor if caught treating children under the age of 16 with hormone replacement therapy. It also bans them from performing sex reassignment surgery on people in that age range. It carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
Any surgical or hormonal intervention on a young person with intersex variations would be exempt from criminal charges. HB 1057 would therefore allow for “corrective” surgery on intersex babies and youth, which has been called “harmful” and “unnecessary” by Human Rights Watch.
South Dakota has been the first U.S. state to advance such a law this year, though dozens of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have recently popped up across the nation, with many specifically targeting transgender youth. LGBTQ+ advocacy groups saw a win when one such bill, which would remove protections against discrimination for trans people, was proposed in the Iowa House and shot down on Wednesday evening. (Committee Chair Rep. Steven Holt, who killed the Iowa bill, said: “The message that such an action would send to people is not an acceptable message.”)
Rep. Fred Deutsch, the South Dakota bill’s primary sponsor, said at the Wednesday hearing that it would protect vulnerable children who “are being chemically castrated, sterilized, and surgically mutilated,” according to The Washington Post. He added, “This is a bill of compassion.”
However, LGBTQ+ advocates and medical organizations have voiced concerns around the bill’s implications. Several recent studies have shown that gender-affirming medical treatment significantly aids the mental health of trans and gender non-conforming youth. “Bills that criminalize or otherwise ban life-saving medical treatment for transgender youth are dangerous attacks on the ability of our youth to survive,” Chase Strangio, deputy director for Transgender Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union, told them. in a statement. “We have a collective responsibility to speak out against these bills, which are pending in states across the country and fight on the side of young people who know who they are and in support of evidence-based medicine, which has proven to improve health outcomes for trans people.”
Strangio also added that the ACLU is willing to challenge the law in court if it passes. “With HB 1057 passing out of the South Dakota house it will now move to the South Dakota state senate where we will continue to fight it and if it ultimately becomes law, we see them in court,” he said. The ACLU has also encouraged people to call their Representatives in South Dakota and ask that they vote NO on HB 1057.
Other prominent figures who have spoken out against HB 1057 include Laverne Cox, Indya Moore, and New York Knicks player Reggie Bullock, who lost his transgender sister Mia Henderson to a fatal transphobic attack in 2014. “Trans kids & docs i’d like each of you to contact the south dakota legislators & governor to let them know how harmful this will be to trans kids & well meaning doctors who affirm them,” Moore wrote in a tweet January 16. “This is absolutely obscene & unamerican.”
In addition to HB 1057, two new bills that would strip transgender minors of their rights were introduced to the South Dakota Senate earlier this week by State Senator Phil Jensen.
If you are having thoughts about suicide, you get confidential help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.
The Trans Lifeline is a trans-led hotline that provides resources and support for transgender individuals in need. Contact the line at 877-565-8860 (US) or 877-330-6366 (Canada).
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