Natural State News

The Arkansas Senate passed a legislation that allows the ban of gender confirmation treatment for minors. 

The move has received criticism from medical experts and child welfare organizations. Journalist Katelyn Burns discussed the nationwide anti-trans legislature status in an interview and how the legislature could affect transgender youth if validated.

“There's been a very concerted effort on the far right to divide the T from the rest of the LGBT,” Burns said. “So somebody who ostensibly leans liberal, maybe has gay relatives or friends or long ago accepted marriage equality, like, they think they know what's up with all of this stuff.”

The Senate voted an overwhelming 28-7 in favor of the law. The legislation has been sent to Republic Gov. Asa Hutchinson for consideration. Hutchinson has been under fire after signing a bill banning trans women from participating in female sport teams last week, and has now been placed on restriction. He must respond to legislation within the next few days to avoid its passing without his signature.

If the bill is ratified, it will serve as the first of legislation to prohibit medical hormone treatments and surgeries on minors.

“We're talking about puberty blockers for younger teens,” Burns said. “And we're talking about hormone replacement therapy for older teens. Surgery typically is not done on teenagers. Though the bill alludes directly to surgery, that is kind of a moot point.”

The idea for the legislation derived from neighboring states that have implemented similar measures, such as Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, all of which have banned transgender women and young girls from participating in sport teams that match their sexual identity. 

"If you remember, after marriage equality was passed into law by the Supreme Court, what the religious right then did was sort of start ignoring lesbian and gay and bisexual people and focus all of their attention on trans people," Burns said. “So in 2016, you know, the bathroom bill in North Carolina that passed, you had all these states trying to institute bathroom bills. That effort largely spectacularly failed and actually increased Americans' knowledge and sympathy toward the trans community. So what they've done is they've moved on to more sort of fringe issues that poll better for them. And one of them happens to be the sports issue.”

Organizations who oppose the proposal include the American Academy of Pediatrics, while The American Civil Liberties Union has already threatened to pursue legal action against it. Upon receiving approval from the governor, the law would become effective this summer.