Idaho’s transgender care ban is cruelty dressed up as love — the worst hypocrisy | Opinion

Today Idaho is less than it was yesterday.

Less kind.

Less welcoming.

Less loving.

On Tuesday evening, Gov. Brad Little announced that he had signed House Bill 71, which makes it a felony for a doctor to follow the standard of care for transgender children.

The law bans surgeries — which are not performed on minors in Idaho, no one has documented a single instance of it — but it also bans lower-level interventions such as hormone therapy and even puberty blockers, a reversible measure that buys time for counseling.

So beginning in January, doctors who follow the recommendations of the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics for treating transgender children are subject to similar sentences (up to 10 years in prison) as someone who commits aggravated battery (up to 15 years) — the charge someone would face if they attacked someone with a deadly weapon.

The backers of the law say they are doing this out of love, out of a desire to protect children. But they do not even know the children who they are attacking. These children are simply a stand-in for a culture the bill’s proponents believe is leaving them behind, a culture they want to control using government force.

The families of transgender children — who actually do love them — will soon face a heartbreaking choice: Break the law, deny their child health care or flee Idaho.

To throw these families into that impossible position is not love. To attack people this way, to make their lives into a crime, is cruelty. And to say the reason for this cruelty is that you’re protecting them — that is the worst kind of hypocrisy.

Idaho’s Democrats were unanimous in opposing the bill. They were joined by a handful of particularly brave Republicans: Rep. Matthew Bundy of Mountain Home, Sen. Treg Bernt of Pocatello, Sen. Linda Hartgen of Twin Falls, Sen. Geoff Schroeder of Mountain Home and Sen. Julie VanOrden of Pingree.

They knew they’d pay a price for doing the right thing. They’ll face campaign ads accusing them of supporting the mutilation of children and every other kind of lie.

They nonetheless stood up for the rights of parents and children to seek out the kind of health care they judge necessary. These lawmakers remembered that they are supposed to love their neighbors, something the majority forgot. The families of transgender children are the ones who will suffer because of it.

Don’t expect it to end there.

Transgender kids are first because they’re easy targets. They’re few in number. They’re subject to societal prejudice.

And now Idaho’s Christian nationalists have waged a campaign to take away their rights and succeeded. Their ambitions will expand.

So if you stood on the sidelines for this one, you should ask yourself: Am I next?

And you should commit to doing your part of the long, hard work of repealing this cruel law and restoring basic rights and dignity to Idaho’s transgender children and their families.

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman based in eastern Idaho.