Few LGBTQ-related bills on Utah's Capitol Hill this legistlative season

Unlike some other states, the number of LGBTQ bills this year at the Utah Legislative Session, especially bad ones, is small. Here is a writeup of where they are.

Prohibition of Transgender Procedures upon Minors

One bill still being drafted (as of press time) is a bill promised by Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, which would prohibit doctors from doing gender reassignment surgery on minors. Daw has promised the bill would not preclude hormone blockers, but no draft is currently available to determine if he will be true to his word.

HB 116 — Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and LGBTQ+ Task Force

A bill touted as a first step towards addressing what leaders are calling an epidemic of missing and murdered Native American women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people was heard Feb. 11 on Utah’s Capitol Hill.

Rep. Angela Romero

Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, sponsored HB 116, Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and LGBTQ+ Task Force, in an effort to collect data on the issue.

The task force she is hoping to create would be comprised of 17 members, including legislators, Native American tribal and organizational leaders, a Tribal judge, a Native American survivor of violence, A University of Utah researcher, a sheriff and a district attorney.

The group is tasked with identifying the “systemic causes behind violence that indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ+ experience, including patterns and underlying factors that explain why disproportionately high levels of violence occur against indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ+, including underlying historical, social, economic, institutional, and cultural factors that may contribute to the violence.”

They will also identify gaps in law enforcement data collection and study ways to address those gaps.

They will then recommend improvements in the “criminal justice and social service systems for preventing and addressing the murdered and missing indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ+ crisis in Utah.”

They will have until Nov. 20 of this year to report on their finding.

Romero is asking for a one-time $40,000 appropriation to fund the task force.

The bill passed both the committee and the Utah House and is now sitting in the Utah Senate.

HB 234 — Gestational Agreement Amendments

A bill by Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, that removes a restriction in Utah law that disallows a gay male couple from becoming surrogate parents unanimously passed through a Utah House of Representatives committee on Friday and is headed to the House floor for debate on Wednesday. HB 234 — Gestational Agreement Amendments removes the restriction that a couple can only enter into a surrogacy agreement if “medical evidence shows that the intended mother is unable to bear a child or is unable to do so without unreasonable risk to her physical or mental health or to the unborn child.” That restriction was used to deny a gay male couple in St. George from becoming surrogate parents. A St. George judge ruled that he had no choice but to deny the petition of two gay men after a woman and her husband agreed she would carry the child. The judge found that the men had a sound argument, but the law refers only to a mother, meaning a woman, and they both are men.

Both couples appealed the decision to the Utah Supreme Court, arguing the law violates the men’s constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. The justices agreed on the constitutional point but not on their argument that a mother should be interpreted to mean a parent.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office, which generally defends state laws, agreed with the couple, and submitted court papers in favor of their argument.

In August 2019, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that “same-sex couples must be afforded all of the benefits the state has linked to marriage.”

At the time, Equality Utah’s executive director, Troy Williams, said that the court “has stricken discriminating language from Utah’s code and affirmed that equality is the law of the land.”

Arent testified that the bill is mostly a housekeeping measure to make the Utah law reflect the court ruling.

The Utah House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the full Utah House where it was passed unanimously. It is now waiting in the Utah Senate for consideration.