NC GOP bill limiting care for trans kids moves ahead without time for public comment

A bill backed by state House Republicans that would ban gender-transition surgery for transgender children took a step forward Tuesday, passing a committee during a packed hearing in which no time was allotted for public comments from dozens of people lined up to speak out against it.

The bill would prohibit medical professionals from providing surgical gender-affirming procedures to minors, or referring them to that care. It would make exceptions for diagnosed sexual development disorder, for the treatment of infections and more.

It would also prohibit the use of state funds, directly or indirectly, for these procedures for minors.

“What we’re dealing with here is limited to surgical procedures that are used for gender transitioning on minors, that is people under the age of 18. This is not a bill that is about denying surgical procedure to those 18 and older who choose to have those types of procedures,” said Republican Rep. Hugh Blackwell, a primary bill sponsor.

“We’re simply suggesting with this legislation, that that’s something because of the age significance or its life significance that is a choice that should be made when the child is of age, and that’s essentially all that you’re trying to accomplish here,” he said.

During the just under 45-minute hearing Tuesday attended by dozens of opponents, some lined up to speak against the bill, only the final 10 minutes were left to discuss the bill, with all that time being allotted to bill sponsors and none for lawmakers’ debate or public comment.

The bill passed with multiple verbal “no’s” from lawmakers. People lined up who could not speak shouted “shame” and “let us speak” and loudly booed lawmakers.

The bill that passed replaced an earlier version of House Bill 808 that would have also banned access to hormone therapy and puberty blockers for minors. It would’ve also banned counselors from providing gender-affirming care.

Surgery for transgender patients

Rep. Ken Fontenot, another sponsor, cited cases in which people who had a surgery had reversed their decision or died while in surgery , saying “this bill is not an attempt to hurt trans children. It is an attempt to protect (a) vulnerable population” when surgeries are “clearly still experimental,” he said.

“What we are calling for is relatively simple, to not resort to irreversible procedures that are dangerous before we absolutely, positively, without a doubt know that they will actually help.” he said.

A Duke pediatric endocrinologist previously told The News & Observer that transgender children do not typically undergo gender-affirming surgical procedures. Patients who have facial reconstructive surgery, surgery to remove breast tissue, surgery to transform genitalia or other procedures are typically adults, Dr. Deanna Adkins said.

For those who do get surgery, “it’s not as easy as they think, it’s not about just waking up and deciding it one day, it’s not about just seeing something on social media and being like I want that, that looks cool,” said Sean Radek after the hearing.

Radek, who said he got top surgery, a procedure to remove breast or chest tissue, when he was 16, said, “I wish I could have said something,” at the hearing and “If I did not get the care that I received when I did, I would be dead.”

“So many transgender children take their lives at such a young age,” he said, and with transgender children being almost eight times more likely to commit suicide than cisgender people, “it’s terrible that they’re attacking us and that they are not holding back.”

He said he has “seen dozens of therapists, I’ve seen dozens of doctors, medical, mental health professionals, I’ve seen, I feel like everyone in the city that I live in, and it was not just a walk in the park, I’ve been through so much just to get to the point where I’m at and to know that I’m still going to have to keep fighting in the way that I was fighting before, that hurts,” he said.

Chelsea Johnson, a licensed marriage and family therapist from Cary who works with transgender youth and their families, said after the hearing that this bill will “harm most of those patients” and increase the risk of suicide by trans youth.

Even though this bill was scaled back to focus on surgeries, Johnson said she thinks it’s “sending this message to the youth that identity as trans and gender nonconforming ... ‘we’re watching you, we’re keeping track of you, we know better than you, we know better than your parents, we know better than your therapist, we know better than your doctor.”

Not allowing the public to speak “basically eradicates those voices,” she said. “I think the more people that (lawmakers) had to hear from, it would be on their conscience when they voted in favor of this bill,” Johnson said, “and they think not allowing people to tell their story is a way to present the bill as positive because no objection can be heard.”

Cooper on transgender bills

Johnson said a handful of bills targeting trans people this year “feels like it’s not about protecting our most vulnerable citizens, it’s about eradicating trans people.”

Republican legislators nationwide this year have filed bills that would limit access to medical care for trans people. In North Carolina, lawmakers approved a bill that would ban transgender girls from joining female sports teams. Another bill was heard last week that would allow medical professionals to decline to provide care based on beliefs, which drew concerns from people that it would ban transgender health care.

Asked about the bills on transgender people that are moving through the legislature, Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters after Tuesday morning’s Council of State meeting that “staying away from cultural wars has been a definite advantage for us over the last few years in economic recruitment, and it’s an advantage for us, and over states like Florida and Texas. So I would encourage the General Assembly to stay away from these issues on an economic basis.”

“On a personal and medical basis, these are decisions that should be made by parents and doctors,” he said, “and it’s disturbing how much the General Assembly is working to insert politicians into a doctor’s exam room, into our school classrooms, into our high school athletics, into what kinds of trophies people get – an amazing anti-Republican, anti-conservative legislature that’s trying to strengthen government in people’s personal lives.”

HB 808, which has a mirroring bill in the Senate, was expected to be heard as early as Wednesday in the House rules committee, where bills often go before heading to the floor for a vote.

Staff writers Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan and Teddy Rosenbluth contributed to this report.