Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday signed a law that prohibits gender-affirming care for minors, the latest state to do so as part of a wider Republican-pushed effort nationwide.
Senate Bill 0001 prohibits health care providers “from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
It specifies that minors who receive care cannot be held liable but lawsuits could be brought up against a minor’s parents “if the parent of the minor consented to the conduct that constituted the violation on behalf of the minor.”
The newly signed law also grants the attorney general the authority to fine health care professionals who provide the care with a civil penalty of $25,000 per violation.
The law – enacted on the same day that Lee signed a bill restricting drag show performances in the state – will go into effect on July 1. Gender-affirming care that began prior to July 1 is not considered a violation “provided that the treating physician must make a written certification that ending the medical procedure would be harmful to the minor,” though access to such care must conclude by March 31, 2024.
LGBTQ advocates and many physicians regard the treatment as medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender – the one the person was designated at birth – to their affirmed gender, the gender by which one wants to be known.
But Tennessee’s legislation – similar in its aim to more than 80 such bills nationwide seeking to restrict access to the treatment, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union and shared with CNN – expresses…
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