The criminalization of trans children and their parents leads to increased mental health issues and even suicide.
SACRAMENTO – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced Thursday he will introduce legislation to protect and provide refuge for trans kids and their parents if they come to California from Texas, Idaho or any other state criminalizing the parents of trans kids for allowing them to receive gender-affirming care.
If these parents and their kids come to California, the legislation will help protect them from having their kids taken away from them or from being criminally prosecuted for supporting their trans kids’ access to healthcare
Trans kids and their parents are currently under assault by executive and legislative action in Texas, Idaho, and other states. Under far-right, anti-LGBTQ Governor Greg Abbott, Texas has begun investigating, and potentially prosecuting, parents of trans kids who receive gender-affirming care. Governor Abbott also directed state agencies to consider removing trans children from their parents and placing them in foster care.
While Governor Abbott’s directive was temporarily placed on hold by a state court, the state is appealing that ruling. Moreover, Idaho legislators introduced legislation last week to make it a felony for parents to allow their children to receive gender-affirming care. Given recent trends in anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion legislation, other Republican-controlled states no doubt will pursue similar legislation and executive action.
The criminalization of trans children and their parents leads to increased mental health issues and even suicide.
Senator Wiener’s legislation, which will be formally introduced in the near future, will have three main components:
1) It will reject any out-of-state court judgments removing trans kids from their parents’ custody based on the parents allowing their kids to receive gender-affirming healthcare. The bill will state that such judgments are against California public policy and will preclude those judgments from being enforced in California courts. As a result, families will be able to come to California to avoid having their trans children taken away from them.
2) It will bar compliance in California with any out-of-state subpoena seeking health or other related information about people who come to California to receive gender-affirming care, if the subpoena relates to efforts to criminalize individuals or remove children from their homes for having received gender-affirming care. Some states are considering legislation that would extend their criminal prohibitions even to residents who travel out of state to receive gender-affirming health care.
3) It will declare that it is California’s public policy that any out-of-state criminal arrest warrant for someone based on violating another state’s law against receiving gender-affirming care is the lowest priority for law enforcement in California.
Trans youth already face numerous barriers to receiving the health care they need. Studies have shown that access to gender-affirming care for trans kids reduces risk for depression, psychological distress, and suicidal ideation. With this bill, California will continue to be a leader in protecting the civil rights and basic dignity of LGBTQ people and will help trans kids and their parents have a safe place to go if they are threatened with prosecution or criminalization for being who they are and seeking the care they need.
“What states like Texas and Idaho are doing to trans kids and their parents is unconscionable, and we must send a clear signal that California is a place of refuge for LGBTQ people,” said Wiener. “The history of the LGBTQ community is a history of criminalization and violence. Society trying to erase us and then punishing us if we refuse to be erased, whether by death, incarceration, beatings, lobotomies, electric shock therapy, conversion therapy, or other forms of violence. California will not be a party to this new phase of deadly LGBTQ criminalization.”
“States should not be criminalizing access to health care for transgender youth,” said Becca Cramer-Mowder, Legislative Coordinator & Advocate for ACLU California Action. “California stands with parents and doctors in supporting transgender youth.”
Senator Wiener’s legislation will be co-sponsored by Equality California and Planned Parenthood. It will be co-authored by Senators Susan Eggman (D-Stockton) and John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), and Assemblymembers Evan Low (D-Campbell), Alex Lee (D-San Jose), Chris Ward (D-San Diego), Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), and Mia Bonta (D-Alameda).
source losangelesblade