By John Riley on January 18, 2023 @JRileyMW
A bill introduced in Oklahoma would not only bar doctors from prescribing transition-related health care treatments to youth suffering from gender dysphoria, but would criminalize any medical provider who prescribes such treatments to adults in their late teens and twenties.
The measure, introduced by Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant), would make any physician who prescribes gender-affirming treatments for gender dysphoria to anyone under the age of 26 — or who refers a patient to a medical professional who provides such treatments — guilty of a felony.
The law would allow doctors who prescribe such treatments to be prosecuted for up to 40 years after prescribing the treatments, and would allow anyone who undergoes such treatments but later experiences regret to sue within that same 40-year time period.
Additionally, the law would deem prescribing any such procedures or treatments as “unprofessional conduct” that would result in the loss of the doctor’s license to practice.
The bill would bar public funds from being granted to any organization that provides such procedures to anyone under the age of 26, and gender-affirming treatments — whether puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender confirmation surgery — could not be performed in any facility owned by the state or a local government, or recommended by any physician or health care professional who is employed by the state or a local government.
As is common with most bills barring gender-affirming care, the bill grants an exemption for doctors to recommend surgery or other procedures that seek to force intersex individuals to alter their bodies in order to conform to a specific assigned sex. Additionally, there is an exemption for doctors treating people who have experienced complications from undergoing transition-related care, and another exemption that would allow certain procedures, such as a hysterectomy, that are needed to treat a disorder or illness that would otherwise place the patient at risk of death or serious injury.
“The bill is a restriction on transgender medicine and procedures just making sure that we have it restricted to an age where cognitive development is mature,” Bullard, who is a teacher by profession, told Oklahoma City-based CBS affiliate KWTV. “The brain is not fully developed until 25.”
Billard previously authored a bill last year that became law, requiring all restrooms and changing rooms in public schools to be expressly designated for a specific biological sex.
A separate, but similar, bill filed by State Rep. Jim Olsen (R-Sallisaw) last year would bar physicians from providing gender-affirming treatments to any patient under the age of 21, carrying a penalty of a $100,000 fine and up to a decade in prison for any violations.
Bullard noted that doctors who prescribe gender-affirming care to individuals who are otherwise legally recognized as adults have a lot to lose by violating the law, endangering their ability to practice and opening themselves up to lawsuits from former patients.
“Their Hippocratic oath…was ‘to do no harm’ and so that is what this surgery or these procedures do,” Bullard said.
Critics of the bill say that the bill’s penalties will effectively inhibit any practicing physician from recommending any gender-affirming treatments, and could lead some to refuse to treat transgender individuals altogether — effectively leaving those suffering from gender dysphoria on their own.
“We know things like puberty blockers can have a dramatic difference in someone’s ability to stay alive. To disrupt suicidality if they are a transgender young person,” Nicole McAfee, the executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, told KWTV.
“There is a lot of debate about different ages, [but] any of these bans are harmful,” added McAfee. “What we are talking about is an expansion of the Oklahoma legislature choosing to disrupt best practice medical care in this case for transgender people.”
By John Riley on February 1, 2023 @JRileyMW
In a video released on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump vowed that if re-elected to the presidency, he would sign laws that penalized doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors, discourage acknowledgment of gender-nonconformity, and require schools to promote the concept of the nuclear family.
In the video, posted to Truth Social and Rumble, the former president said that, if elected to the White House once more in 2024, he would direct federal agencies to police and ultimately "stop" gender-affirming medical interventions for minors, which he equated to "child abuse" and "child sexual mutilation."
By John Riley on December 30, 2022 @JRileyMW
A federal appeals court has sided with a Florida school district's policy prohibiting transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identities.
On Dec. 30, the conservative 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4, along partisan lines, that the St. Johns County School Board did not discriminate against transgender students based on sex or violate federal civil rights law when it required transgender students to use bathrooms matching their assigned sex at birth or gender-neutral bathrooms.
All seven judges voting to uphold the policy were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump, while the four dissenting judges were appointed by Democratic presidents, reports Reuters.
By Hugh McIntyre on January 7, 2023 @popbanghugh
The 15th season of RuPaul's Drag Race premiered on Friday, January 6, on MTV, and this latest iteration of the reality franchise is just a bit different from what fans are used to.
First, there are more contestants than ever, as 16 queens are vying for the crown and the title of America's next drag superstar.
There is also a bit of a shake-up on the judging panel, as trans musician, actor, reality personality, and producer Ts Madison has officially joined the club and will be featured on a number – if not all – of the episodes this season.
Ts Madison is the first new member of the Drag Race judging panel in years, and she joins fellow regulars Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, Ross Mathews, and of course, Mama Ru herself.
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