Wisconsin legislative Republicans, including Sen. Jacque, Sen. Kathy Bernier, Rep. Allen and others are looking for co-sponsors for their transphobic “Help not Harm Act – Prohibiting Sex Reassignment of Minors” (LRB -0396).
According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, this bill prohibits physicians and health care professionals from providing any gender transition procedure including “inpatient and outpatient hospital service, puberty-blocking drug, cross-sex hormone, genital gender reassignment surgery or non-genital gender reassignment surgy” if the recipient is under the age of 18. In addition, this legislation would prohibit the Department of Health Services and self-insured private insurance from covering these procedures if the recipient is under the ae of 18. This legislation also appears to criminalize best practice medical care for transgender youth which is backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. When looking at this bill it is hard to see anything other than the most extreme political attack on our transgender and non-binary youth that Wisconsin has faced.
The bill which is currently in process in Wisconsin is a copycat of the Arkansas bill, with several sections nearly entirely copied. Legislative Youth Medical Care bans are part of a wave of anti-LGBTQ/ anti-trans legislation which is sweeping across the nation. According to Freedom For All Americans, since the beginning of 2022, 15 states have seen a combined 23 youth medical care bans. Since March of 2021 Wisconsin has seen 7 anti-LGBTQ+ bills: Texas has seen almost 70. Fair Wisconsin, GSAFE and a coalition of statewide organizations and leaders are organizing opposition to this legislation.
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