Fourteen states have passed laws in 2023 to restrict or ban outright so-called "gender transitions" for minors. These "transitions" involved puberty-blocking drugs, artificial hormones, and radical surgeries. These treatments will have dangerous side effects on children that include sterilization, as well as causing long-term health issues.
The 14 states are: Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.
The state of Florida's medical boards have also banned these "treatments." In Missouri, the attorney general issued a rule restricting them. Other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, and Texas adopted restrictions before 2023.
In every state, legislators, and governors who supported banning or restricting these radical medical treatments were motivated by the same goal. They want to protect minor children from the transgender "mania" that is sweeping through the culture. Minor children do not possess the emotional and intellectual maturity to make profound medical decisions that in most cases result in irreversible consequences. JDFI praises these states for putting our children first and protecting them from harm.
The transgender mania is likely to be an election issue for many years to come. Virtually all the states that have passed laws protecting children have conservative majorities in their state legislatures. States with liberal majorities such as California, Minnesota, and Oregon have gone in the opposite direction, including allowing children to be "transitioned" without parental permission.
Sadly, the Biden administration is suing Tennessee over a new law there that bans chemical castration and body mutilating surgeries on minors. The administration claims the law is a violation of civil rights. JDFI rejects this claim.
