Idaho's bill to outlaw medical treatment
for transgender kids is now heading to
the House floor after passing the House
Judiciary and Rules Committee 14 to 3.
But not before the bill went
before the public a packed house
for that hearing on House Bill 71,
which would add transgender
treatments like puberty blockers,
hormone therapy and gender
affirming surgeries for minors.
It would add those things to Idaho's already
existing genital mutilation of a child law.
We heard from Republican representative
Bruce Scott, who is sponsoring the bill,
who split his time with Blaine Kazadi.
Of the Idaho Family Policy Center,
who obviously helped draft this bill,
and we heard from several doctors in
the state and otherwise who spoke
both in favor and against the bill.
Those doctors in favor spoke about
a child's confusion when it comes
to their gender,
about how their dysphoria can be
treated with just straight therapy,
no pun intended.
And they spoke to the permanence,
I should say,
of puberty blockers and hormone treatments,
which I would assume is kind of
the point of taking them right.
Those doctors opposed to the bill,
well, they stress the need for
such treatments for trans.
Kids to help with their mental
health and eventually their physical
health as a way to avoid self harm.
They also said that 99% of physicians
in Idaho are there to provide
the best care possible for their
patients and lawmakers should stay
out of the decision that should
be between parents and their child
and their child's medical doctors.
It was a common take among those in
favor of the bill that these treatments,
the hormone and puberty blocking treatments,
are irreversible and go against
what representative Scott called the
fundamental right to procreate that
would be taken away by these parents.
It's a massive cash grab.
The FDA has finally admitted to some
of the long term effects that these
practices can have on children.
Puberty blockers have been known to lead
to swelling of the brain and vision, loss,
loss of bone density and muscle mass,
and even sterilization.
Yes, they're sterilizing children
and giving the false promise
that it's just simply a pause on
puberty and can be reversed.
These are reversed.
These are claims that have
been proven false repeatedly.
I have transgender patients
over the age of 18 who have
been on cross sex hormones.
For more than two years.
And they discontinued those hormones
for a period of time in order to regain
fertility and have successful pregnancy,
both male and female.
And the evidence is quite clear
that puberty blockers do not
shut the door on fertility.
A majority of gender dysphoric
patients carry mental health diagnosis.
Many have been sexually abused.
I can testify that medically altering their
physical appearance is not the answer.
As a Doctor Who has sworn to do no harm,
it is my duty to warn you.
Against gender treatments that
fundamentally alter a child's healthy body,
these therapies sterilize children and
do not address their underlying trauma.
It would be considered unethical to
perform a gastric bypass surgery
on a child with an eating disorder.
The fear of being fined, jailed,
or of losing my medical license for
for providing the well established,
safe and medically studied
standard of care for my patients
is highly concerning to me,
and I have considered looking
into other States and other areas.
Practice I strongly recommend that
you reject this bill and to protect
Idaho's future physician workforce
and the rights of parents to make
medical decisions for their children.
That idea of kind of moving somewhere else?
Well, Doctor Scherer said she's heard
the same sentiment from several
other doctors either already in Idaho
or considering moving to Idaho.
There was also passionate testimony today
from people with actual skin in the game,
parents of transgender teenagers and
transgender teenagers themselves.
Chris Hunting is a transgender person
raising a transgender teenager.
They grew up in Idaho and told the
committee there were countless times
they were made to feel not wanted
or that they did not belong here.
I'm here today to ask you to please.
Stop bringing things like this.
Here, my kid doesn't need
to feel the way I felt here.
My kid deserves to be here.
The stick to the bill, you know,
let's just talk about this, you know.
Yeah, absolutely.
On the kids. Absolutely.
As a as an Idaho resident, yeah.
And an Idaho parent, it is my right
to have medical discussions with my
kids doctor about their healthcare.
And I've seen many of you stand
adamantly against the government
getting in the way of parenting.
Confused as to why you're
here trying to pass it today.
Transgender youth belong here just
as much as this gender youth do.
They need to know that.
They need to know that they're loved,
and passing legislation
like this makes them know.
That there is a whole committee of you.
That think they're not.
This bill is nothing more than an
attack on the most vulnerable of
our kids, our transgender kids.
This culture war has no place
in the Idaho legislature.
OK, let's, let's stick to the bill, right.
This is part of the bill.
House Bill 71 has one purpose only,
and that is to prevent kids from
getting life saving medical care.
I am sticking to the bill.
OK, we are out of time for you too.
So, well, let me just ask
you this one thing. Please.
Well, I implore you as a mother,
leave our. Kids alone,
let those decisions be with
their parents and their doctors.
Not this body of people and
not the Idaho legislature.
Preciate your passion.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
So you can kind of sense the theme
there and the passion as well,
opponents wanting these decisions to
remain with the family and their doctors.
OK, So what about an actual
transgender teenager?
Well, when 17 year old Eve Devitt
stepped to the podium to explain
how being on estrogen for almost
three years has saved her life,
making her more complete representative,
Chris Mathias wanted her to
walk him through the process.
It took probably about nine
months to a year after that to
actually get on puberty blockers,
cause I had to go through a bunch of
different psychological evaluations and
stuff like that to make sure that it wasn't.
That me being trans wasn't because
of a a traumatic experience or
depression or anything else like that.
And then from there it took probably
another six months of getting tests done,
getting labs done,
going to therapists, all that stuff,
endocrinologist to get onto estrogen.
I am sick and tired of seeing the people
on this committee constantly try to
take away my rights every single year,
but I'm not tired of fighting back.
If you care about the rights for parents
to choose what is right for their kids,
like you stated you had just earlier today,
then you will vote against this bill.
Eve says she's going to get a consultation
for surgery, which will still not
happen for at least another year's.
Point is this isn't the very next step
for teenagers who come out as transgender.
In fact, a lot spent years in therapies
you just heard before making any life or
gender changing decisions, and some don't.
Some don't even make that decision,
representative Julianne Young
said at the end of the hearing.
Today, the state of Idaho does set
some limits on parental rights.
That's what Idaho does,
setting some limits on parental rights.
Unless of course,
it comes to those parents in the name of
religion who do not want to give their kids.
Medical care.
With this whole thing, you know,
they're not even sure how many
Idahoans are going through gender
affirmation treatment because we
don't track this stuff in this state.
We do know experts put the number
of those with regrets who go
through this at less than 1%.
So they don't know how many they plant.
They might help with this
bill should it pass,
but based on testimony today,
they do know how many it would hurt.