Tennessee Transgender Laws

Post Reply New Topic

Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday signed legislation banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care despite threats from civil rights organizations that vowed to sue if and when the bill becomes law.

Lee also signed another law restricting drag shows from taking place in public or in front of children.

Across the United States, state lawmakers have introduced legislation attacking gender-affirming medical care for young people, even as such services have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.

House lawmakers in Tennessee voted 77-16 on Thursday, with three Democrats joining their Republican colleagues to pass the bill limiting care for transgender youth.

Under Tennessee's new law, doctors are prohibited from providing gender-affirming care to anyone under the age of 18, including prescribing puberty blockers and hormones — and could even be penalized.

However, the legislation spells out exceptions, including allowing doctors to perform these medical services if the patient's care had begun prior to July 1, 2023 — which is when the ban is proposed to go into effect. The bill then states that that care must end by March 31, 2024.

"These children do not need these medical procedures to be able to flourish as adults," said House Majority Leader William Lamberth. "They need mental health treatment. They need love and support, and many of them need to be able to grow up to become the individuals that they were intended to be"

Similar bills have advanced in Nebraska, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In Utah, the Republican governor recently signed a transgender medical ban into law. Meanwhile, a federal judge who blocked Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming care for minors is now considering whether to strike down the law as unconstitutional. A similar ban in Alabama has also been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it planned to sue over Tennessee's bill.

On Thursday, Tennessee became the first state in the country to sign a bill banning public drag performances by classifying them as adult cabaret along with topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers.

Other states are considering similar bills, but none has acted as fast as Tennessee. Across the country, conservative activists and politicians complain that drag shows contribute to the "sexualization" or "grooming" of children.

This is absolutely disgusting, but I can't say I'm surprised, it being the South. What an awful country.

I meant the country as a whole is deplorable. And the fact that there are any of those lawmakers proves it

I disagree. There are much worst countries out there for LGBTQ folks like us to be born in. Try being gay or transgender in a place like Iran for example.

Until the US actually reaches Handmaid's Tale status of oppression I will never count us as being the worst place in the world to be gay or transgender.

I never said it was the worst- but not being the worst does not make it automatically good. MLK injustice anywhere threat to justice everywhere spiel.