Photo provided by: West Virginia State Capitol Photo Shoot
Rep. Anitra Hamilton (D-Monongalia) urged her colleagues on the House Health Committee to oppose eliminating all remaining exceptions for gender-affirming care in health care.
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia General Assembly passed a bill last year banning gender-affirming care for children with certain exceptions, but the House Delegates Committee has resumed debate on the controversial issue. and decided to completely ban care.
The House Health and Human Resources Committee recommended on Friday that House Bill 5297 be passed in committee, sending the bill to the full chamber to pass the bill on third reading by Wednesday's “Crossover Day” deadline. did.
HB 5297 would ban the use of puberty control therapy and hormone therapy for severe gender dysphoria from prohibition. A similar bill passed the House last year.
Last year, Congress passed a 2007 House bill that would prohibit doctors from performing irreversible gender reassignment surgery or prescribing medications for gender reassignment treatments, such as hormones and puberty blockers, on people under 18, with certain exceptions. passed the bill.
HB 2007 requires the minimum necessary use of drug-based gender-affirming care for youth diagnosed with severe gender dysphoria by multiple physicians to address psychological issues and prevent self-harm. Guardrails were included to limit as far as doses were concerned. However, HB 5297 would completely ban medical gender-affirming care.
Gender dysphoria is defined as the anxiety a person may have because of the discrepancy between their biological sex and their perceived gender identity.
As of early 2024, 23 states had passed laws or enacted policies restricting minors' access to gender reassignment care, up from four states in 2022, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. There is. Of these 23 states, 17 have enacted laws, and four of them have implemented them. States whose laws are blocked by pending federal court cases.
Kentucky's law will take full effect, and Ohio's law will go into effect in April. According to KFF, 38% of transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 live in one of the 23 states that restrict gender-affirming care. According to Fairness West Virginia, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group, about 2% of young people identify as transgender and are less likely to seek gender-affirming care, such as hormone therapy, if they are considering self-harm or suicide. is 73% lower.
“When we say parental rights are important, we don't need to get in the way of 134 legislators to get our kids' prescriptions right,” Isabella Cortez, gender policy manager at Fairness West Virginia, said in a statement after the committee vote. It also includes the right to meet the requirements.” “Lawmakers are under no obligation to tell parents whether they can take their children to the doctor for medically necessary life-saving treatment,” she said. The behavior is abhorrent.”
An amendment by Rep. Mike Pushkin, D-Kan., would allow patients currently receiving these treatments to continue receiving them. The amendment was rejected 11-8.
“I think this is a very important correction,” Pushkin said. “If someone is in this program, this allows them to stay in the program. The government can step in and get someone out of this and intervene between them and their doctors and their parents. That can be incredibly harmful.”
Not a single Republican spoke in support of HB 5297, and no testimony was obtained from supporters or opponents of the bill. But the bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Jeff Foster (R-Putnam), said the goal is to return to the bill passed by the House last year and eliminate all exceptions.
“The way the bill is written now, it's already been addressed,” Foster said. “The bill as currently written, when it passed the House of Representatives (last year), had already taken care of any exceptions that were not specifically intended to change biological sex.”
Rep. Anitra Hamilton (D-Monongalia) urged committee members to oppose the bill, expressing concern that it would increase the likelihood of suicide or suicide attempts among transgender youth in the state.
“We think it’s important for us to be able to support these young people in school,” Hamilton said. “There's a lot of data that shows it's medically necessary to be able to provide age-appropriate care. And I think our ultimate goal is suicide prevention.”
This is the second bill this legislative session aimed at placing restrictions on West Virginia's transgender community. Last week, the House passed House Bill 5243, creating the Women's Bill of Rights Act.
The bill defines gender-based terms in state law and provides that “woman,” “girl,” and “mother” refer to biological females, with certain exceptions. It also prohibits unequal treatment of men and women and allows the establishment of separate living facilities, changing rooms, toilets, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers based on biological sex.
House Bill 4233 bans the use of “non-binary” on birth certificates and requires a child’s sex at birth to be listed as male or female. The bill, which passed the House on February 9, will receive its first reading in the state Senate on Saturday.
