As Tennessee lawmakers wrap the 2021 legislative session, the General Assembly has successfully enacted two pieces of anti-trans legislation, with at least 4 more still being debated in committee. Now, the state is poised to potentially sneak an anti-trans healthcare bill through the back door.
The bill, known as SB 126 in the Senate and HB 1027 in the House, was initially intended to amend statutes relating to the treatment of children in group home settings. Consisting of just two sections in total, the very brief measure sought to require 7, rather than 6, hours of training for personnel assisting young people with self-administering their medications.
But once in committee, the bill’s sponsors proposed congruent amendments that would essentially eliminate the bill’s prior text and instead replace it with a ban on hormone therapy for minors — a process known as “gut and amend” in some states.
Introduced on April 5, the new text of SB 126 states that healthcare providers “shall not prescribe a course of treatment that involves hormone treatment for gender dysphoric or gender incongruent prepubertal minors.” It makes an exception for cases of “prepubertal minors for diagnoses of growth deficiencies or other diagnoses unrelated to gender dysphoria or gender incongruency.”
“Hormone treatment” for minors generally entails prescribing puberty blockers. These medications delay puberty and allow trans kids and their parents more time to decide whether the kid wants to go on to take hormones or go through their endogenous puberty (the puberty associated with their sex at birth).
Many national health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association, acknowledge that gender-affirming healthcare — such as puberty blockers and other hormone-related treatments — can be life-saving for trans people and trans youth in particular. Studies have shown that puberty blockers can help trans youth feel happier and healthier and that they can play a role in significantly reducing suicidal thoughts and feelings.
According to LGBTQ Nation, the amendments to the Tennessee bill have been accepted by their respective committees, passing by partisan vote with support from Republicans only. The State Senate approved the revised legislation on April 8, and the House “approved it by voice vote and combined it with the Senate version” on Monday, as the LGBTQ+ news site reports.
The bill’s trajectory is extremely similar to what happened with Florida’s anti-trans sports bill, Senate Bill 2012, which initially stalled in a State Senate committee before being attached as an amendment to an unrelated piece of legislation. The 11th-hour amendment watered down the most controversial elements of the prior legislation, such as a rule potentially mandating genital exams for students athletes, and subsequently passed the State House 79-37 and the Senate 23-16.
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has vowed to sign the bill, which would ban trans girls from competing on women’s sports teams in school athletics.
But with Tennessee’s legislative session adjourning for the calendar year on Wednesday, it’s unclear if supporters will have enough time to get the amended bill to Republican governor Bill Lee’s desk — or whether it will be held for 2022.
Should Tennessee sign the bill into law, it would be just the second state in the country to restrict health care for transgender youth, after Arkansas Republicans overrode governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto of an anti-trans medical care ban in April. A sweeping ban on gender-affirming treatments for trans minors is currently awaiting a hearing in the Alabama House and could be debated in the coming days. The legislation, one of the country’s most extreme anti-trans bills, would also force teachers to out trans students to their parents.
SB 126 and its companion bill are not the only anti-LGBTQ+ bills, however, to be pushed by Tennessee lawmakers in 2021. The GOP has proposed multiple “bathroom bills” this year, one of which would shame businesses that allow trans people to use the correct bathroom. Other discriminatory proposals have sought to limit education on LGBTQ+ topics in schools and prevent trans kids from playing on the sports team that matches their gender.
Of these bills, two have already been signed by Lee: the sports ban and a bill allowing students to be excused from lessons that include LGBTQ+ content.
A slate of health and child welfare organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the National Association of Social Workers, have publicly opposed anti-trans healthcare legislation. In an open letter, the organizations stated that they were “deeply alarmed” by this year’s slate of legislation, saying the anti-trans bills “promote discrimination and do harm to students, their families, and their communities.”
Taking specific aim at Tennessee’s bills, more than 40 Nashville music organizations have signed a letter opposing anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. Last month, companies like Apple, Sony Music, and Spotify wrote that the legislation would be “disastrous to Tennessee’s social and economic health” and urged lawmakers to “reject these bills and help ensure that our state is welcoming and economically vibrant.”
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