[New] Gender Reassignment

Surgical Health Benefits

HJR 5 is a bill sponsored by Rep. Sahara Hayes, D-Millcreek, that would direct the states health insurance provider, Public Employees’ Benefit and Insurance Program, to provide gender reassignment surgical benefits to state employees and beneficiaries.

“Medical professionals have found gender reassignment surgery for adults medically necessary to treat persistent and extended gender dysphoria,” the bill reads. “Many insurance plans and employers in Utah offer gender reassignment surgical benefits.”

The resolution requires the person seeking the surgery to be over 18, to have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria for at least a year and undergone hormone treatment, changed their name, and presented as their desired gender for a year.

SB100 School District Gender Identity Policies

This bill is being sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler and would require schools to notify parents is a child seeks to be addressed by a name other than what is on their school records or to use a different pronoun. It further prohibits the school from using the name or pronoun until there is parental consent.

“If every teacher is getting a memo and said, we’re calling Mike ‘Mikell’ or something like that and it’s a school policy – substitute teachers are being informed but the parents are being kept secret, that’s being withheld from the parents – that’s where I think, in my mind, that kind of crosses a line,” Weiler told KUTV News.

Robbins says she is concerned about helping transgender youth stay safe at school.

Weiler said it’s about balancing the needs of the children while also respecting the rights of parents. Q