Bill banning gender-affirming care for minors moves forward

MORNING NEWSBREAK | A proposed ban on gender-transition hormones and surgeries for transgender youths advanced Wednesday after a panel of state senators gave the bill its first round of approval in the Senate.

The measure passed 4-3 along party lines after several hearings in recent days. Senators heard competing testimonies from supporters, who say the proposal will protect children, and opponents, who say it will only harm the mental health of transgender youths.

The S.C. House swiftly passed the bill in January, prompting outrage from parents of transgender children and other LGBTQ supporters. Left-leaning lawmakers said that at best, the measure was a distraction from other issues that matter more.

“My initial thoughts were that this bill is another example of the MAGA/GOP wasting critical legislative time on a non-issue,” state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton, said in a Jan. 26 report in the Charleston City Paper. “When we should be tackling more important educational, infrastructure, insurance and budget issues, the so-called ‘less government control party’ is taking more liberties by forcing ‘big government’ on our families.”

Next step: The full Senate Medical Affairs Committee must give its approval before the bill can be debated on the Senate floor. The committee is made up of 11 Republicans, five Democrats and one Independent. Lawmakers advanced a similar proposal to the same committee last year, but it was too late in the session for consideration.

“To know that the young people of South Carolina have access to the care that I needed at their age but that it now may be taken away from them, in my mind, is a crime,” Chase Glenn, a transgender man who leads the Alliance for Full Acceptance, said in a report.

Should the state Senate pass the bill, it would expand on existing law that bans the Medical University of South Carolina from using state funds on “furthering gender transition” for children under the age of 16.

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