This proposed legislation SB1451 raises serious concerns about protecting the health and wellbeing of transgender youth. Current best practices and evidence-based standards of care support providing gender-affirming care, which has been shown to significantly reduce rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide risk among this vulnerable population. Denying access to such care would be devastating and unethical. Moreover, criminalizing healthcare providers for following widely accepted medical guidelines puts them in an impossible position of either violating their ethical obligation to provide appropriate treatment or facing criminal charges. Similarly, threatening parents with child abuse charges for allowing their child to receive vital, affirmative care endorsed by all major medical associations is unconscionable. The exemption for intersex children is also highly problematic, as it reinforces the incorrect notion that being transgender is a choice, whereas being intersex is an inborn trait. Both are natural variations in human biology that should be respected, not discriminated against. I urge you to reject this harmful legislation SB1451 that flies in the face of medical consensus. Access to gender-affirming healthcare can be life-saving for transgender youth, and they deserve to be protected, not persecuted. Please stand up for their basic human rights and wellbeing.
