Parents have no right to allow their children to change gender, Republicans say

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. House Republicans argued in a circumscribed federal government panel Thursday that parents should not be allowed to give their transgender children access to gender-affirming care.

“A parent has no right to sexually transform a young child,” said the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, at a hearing on transgender youth. “Our American legal system recognizes the important public interest in protecting children from abuse and physical violence. No parent has the constitutional right to harm their children.”

Johnson and several other Republicans expressed the idea that the federal government should intervene, but gave no details about possible legislation. They argued that gender-affirming surgeries should not be allowed for transgender minors. This type of surgery is rarely performed on patients under 18 years of age.

In Johnson’s home state the Louisiana Legislature in early July voted for it overriding a veto by Gov. John Bel Edwardsmaking a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth law.

Thursday’s hearing reflects a broader trend. At least 21 Republican-led states have passed legislation Prohibition or restriction of gender-specific care of minorssaid the Movement Advancement Project, an organization that tracks LGBTQ+ state policies.

The law wave had a chilling effect to health care providers who shy away from offering other care services, such as mental health and other medical care, to transgender youth.

Gender-equitable care These can include social affirmations, such as adopting a hairstyle or clothing that fits a transgender youth’s gender identity, or using puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Typically, it may involve gender-confirming surgery in adulthood.

“When our Republican colleagues claim that gender-inclusive care poses special dangers or due process problems, that is scaremongering at its worst,” said the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania. “They are already bullying vulnerable children to foment chaos that they hope to achieve at the ballot box.”

Democrats said the hearing was a textbook example of Republican lawmakers attacking transgender children and their families.

Scanlon said denying parents those decisions would be a violation of their parental rights. republican passed legislation in March for a federal Parents Bill of Rights that affects access to educational materials.

State laws

Several federal courts have either blocked or struck down state laws that prohibit gender-affirming care for transgender youth, such as in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida And Indiana.

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, asked one of the Democratic witnesses, attorney Shannon Minter, what conclusions federal courts have drawn about states that pass bans on gender-affirming care.

Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and also transgender, said federal courts have found that these state laws “significantly burden parents’ fundamental right to make medical decisions for their own children.”

“They are obviously discriminatory,” he said. “They are violating the guarantee of equal protection because they are doing something that has never been done before in this country, which is to single out a particular group of people, transgender youth, to deny them medical care.”

The harm caused by anti-LGBTQ laws includes economic harm to communities and families

Despite the cases in federal court, Johnson argued that states have the right to regulate gender-specific care, such as puberty blockers.

Puberty blockers were first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1993 ephemeral Interrupt puberty in children who have gone through it too early. When used in gender-affirming care for transgender youth, these youth can do so decide to start hormone therapy, in which they receive either estrogen or testosterone treatments, depending on which is consistent with their gender identity.

“We’re limited government conservatives, right,” Johnson said. “We obviously recognize that parents have a natural and fundamental right to decide on their care, custody and control in the upbringing of their children. But at the same time, our legal system in this country allows a parent to physically or mentally abuse or harm a child.”

May Mailman, senior counsel at the Independent Woman’s Law Center, a conservative advocacy group, said states should be able to regulate who should have access to transgender health care.

“Unfortunately, I think what you’re seeing is a tendency that states shouldn’t be able to regulate the practice of medicine, and federal judges should somehow do that,” she said.

Life-saving care

One of the Democratic witnesses, Myriam Reynolds, is the mother of a transgender son. She said before he was treated he was unhappy and she had “no doubt that the medical care my son received was life-saving.”

Reynolds said her son’s medical care was provided through tardy and careful decisions approved by her and her husband, and that her son always had the option to stop if he wanted. He received puberty blockers and counseling.

“When my child came out as transgender, there wasn’t the hysteria that there is now about it,” she said. “Being seen as a child abuser or indoctrinated or something like that feels very hateful and divisive.”

Texas Republican Rep. Wesley Hunt said that instead of seeking gender-affirming care when a child tells them that he or she has gender dysphoria, meaning that his or her gender identity is different from the gender he or she is assigned, parents should instead seek gender-affirming care assigned at birth, they should instead question “the root cause of this feeling.”

He compared this decision to his toddlers, who, if it were up to them, “would eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and every single meal in between. Oh, the wisdom of children.”

“In a healthy country, we know that children are not mature enough to make adult decisions that affect the rest of their lives. That’s why we have parents,” he said. “Kids cry out for ice cream, but as parents we are smart enough to know that ice cream is not in their best interest, especially not their long-term interest.”

He said Republicans will have an opportunity in 2024 to “stop all this stupidity.”

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is not a member of the panel, targeted a law recently passed in Washington This protects transgender youth who are seeking gender-affirming care and are estranged from their parents.

“I am against transitioning children against their parents’ wishes,” he said.

Title IX

Several of the Republican witnesses criticized the Department of Education up-to-date rule updating Title IX Allow transgender youth attending public schools to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.

The rule was introduced as states with Republican legislatures passed laws banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.

One of the witnesses, Paula Scanlan, is a former NCAA athlete who swam at the University of Pennsylvania and shared a locker room with Lia Thomas, the first openly transgender woman to compete in the NCAA women’s division. Scanlan said she opposes the Biden administration’s changes to Title IX and that transgender women should not be allowed to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.

Republicans in the House of Representatives recently passed law Ban transgender girls from participating in sports that match their gender identity, a move that mirrors legislation passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures.

Mailman, of the Independent Woman’s Law Center, said gender ideology “has destroyed women and girls by removing legal protections for women in athletics.”

Reynolds said as soon as her son came out as transgender, he stopped playing sports because of the rhetoric about transgender athletes competing in sports consistent with their gender identity.

“It left a big hole in his life,” she said.