8 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | NEWS
Qsaltlake.com |
ISSUE 320 | FEBRUARY, 2021
Anti-trans bills heading the Utah Legislature BY MICHAEL AARON
Republican lawmakers across the country, including several from Utah, are bringing anti-transgender bills to their state legislatures. Some target medical procedures and healthcare for those under 18 years of age and others seek to ban transgender people from participating in sports. Some go as far as to press “child abuse” charges against parents who support their transgender children. Conservative anti-LGBTQ organizations are spearheading the efforts behind the scenes, as was shown in Utah last year as a group of Utah legislators hijacked a bill seeking to end so-called conversion therapy on minors in the state. It turned out that Family Watch International leaders flew into the state as the state legislature considered the bill. Family Watch International was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
HB92: Transgender youth healthcare The first bill in Utah that has been released is HB92 with the ambiguous title, “Medical Practice Amendments.” The bill’s intent is to prohibit a doctor from performing any transgender-related procedure on a minor.
dures would include and typical gender correction surgeries, facial feminization surgeries, administration of testosterone or estrogen, or “removing any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.” Exceptions to the restrictions would be surgeries or procedures performed of sexually ambiguous or with certain chromosomal variations.
Alliance Defending Freedom Rep. Rex Shipp, Sen. Curt Bramble
The bill is sponsored by financial advisor Rep. Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City, in the House, and CPA Sen. Curt Bramble in the Senate. Bramble has long been a “traditional marriage” supporter and is considered one of the most conservative legislators on the Hill. The bill has a long list of medical definitions and adds several procedures to the “unprofessional conduct” statute, including “unnecessary puberty inhibitions” or “sex characteristic-altering procedure” for those under 18 years old. Sex characteristic-altering proce-
The Alliance Defending Freedom is a Christian Right-based group that develops “religious liberty” legislation and case law in the United States and around the world. The group seeks to recriminalize sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults, has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of transgender people abroad, contends that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia, and says the “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society. On transgender issues, the group refers to trans women as men, saying, “Allowing males to compete in the female category isn’t fair and destroys girls’ athletic opportunities. Males will always have inherent physical advantages over compara-
