Tennessee Senate Passes Bill Making "Recruiting" For Trans Youth Care A Felony
The bill could have far ranging impacts in Tennessee and outside of the state, and could be broadly used to target health care professionals across state lines.
AMENDMENT #1 rewrites the bill to, instead, provide that an adult who recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor within this state for the purpose of receiving a prohibited medical procedure that is for the purpose of enabling the minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity, regardless of where the medical procedure is to be procured commits a Class C felony.
This amendment does not apply to: (i) a parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated minor; (ii) an adult who has permission from the unemancipated minor's parent or legal guardian; or (iii) the provision of a medical diagnosis described in the law relevant to medical procedures for minors. Additionally, it is not a defense to prosecution under this amendment that the unemancipated minor consented to the actions.
While it's still a bill to generate trans panic, and fuck them 100% for that, I still feel it's important to be angry at the right things.
This bill only targets people who would do something like this to a child without a legal guardian's permission.
I don't really believe that it's happening enough to make a fucking law about it, if at all. But fuck them still.
The next step will be extreme demonisation of parents of trans people followed by laws targeting the parents.
Basically their goal is to make the parents the only legal means to access medical care but put the parents at risk of breaking convoluted laws by doing so.
Trans healthcare will be “legal” but with so many complicated laws it will be impossible to avoid breaking some of them.
Trust me, I understand the play here. But Imagine you're just an average cis person and your trans friend sends you that article.
You read it and you're angry. "How can they treat human beings like this??"
So you go read the bill.
Kids can't be taken across state lines for gender affirming medical procedures without the consent of their parents.
"Oh... Erin must not have read it thoroughly. This sounds reasonable to me."
And I know this happens because a political podcaster, who is a very intelligent cis guy who I respect, did exactly this about Don't Say Gay.
We need to tell people -why- these laws are dangerous without falling into our own panic.
We need to point out how they all seem to try to "solve" problems that don't exist, or just scapegoat us.
No matter how it's worded, this is absolutely going to be used to prosecute people who provide healthcare to trans minors in good faith.
Trust me, I understand the play here. But Imagine you're just an average cis person and your trans friend sends you that article.
You read it and you're angry. "How can they treat human beings like this??"
So you go read the bill.
Kids can't be taken across state lines for gender affirming medical procedures without the consent of their parents.
"Oh... Erin must not have read it thoroughly. This sounds reasonable to me."
And I know this happens because a political podcaster, who is a very intelligent cis guy who I respect, did exactly this about Don't Say Gay.
We need to tell people -why- these laws are dangerous without falling into our own panic.
We need to point out how they all seem to try to "solve" problems that don't exist, or just scapegoat us.
Draconian.
