Montana Governor Greg Gianforte Friday signed into law a bill banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors in the state. Gianforte signed the bill, the Youth Health Protection Act, after the legislature banned Montana lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from the floor for speaking out against it.
The Youth Health Protection Act claims to “enhance the protection of minors and their families” regarding gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical procedures. The bill bans healthcare providers from knowingly providing transgender minors with medical treatments “to address the minor’s perception that [their] gender or sex is not” what they were labeled with at birth. If a healthcare provider is found to have provided such treatments, they face at least a one-year suspension of their medical license and a potential civil suit from the minor’s parents or guardians.
Critics of the new law, like Zephyr, have condemned it as “tantamount to torture” for Montana’s transgender minors. In a statement, the Montana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics stated, “This bill is based in false information about healthcare for transgender youth, and its passage deprives parents of the ability to make reasonably, thoughtful healthcare choices for their children.”
Gianforte signed the bill, despite increasing national pressure following the legislature’s vote to censure Zephyr and pushback from his own son, who identifies as non-binary with he/they pronouns. Gianforte’s son called the law “immoral, unjust, and frankly a violation of human rights” in a meeting with his father before Gianforte signed the bill Friday.
Along with the Youth Health Protection Act, the Montana legislature is also in the process of passing a bill defining sex as strictly binary within Montana law and a ban on drag performances in most public spaces.
Several organizations, such as the ACLU and Lambda Legal, previously pledged to bring suit if the Youth Health Protection Act passed into law. Though, as of the time of this article, no legal action has been announced. Until then, Montana joins 17 other states banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including Tennessee, South Dakota and Kentucky.
