The Metro Nashville Human Relations Commission spoke out in opposition to a number of proposed bills making their way through the Tennessee General Assembly this legislative session, specifically ones that are “harmful” to the transgender community.
Citing its mission “to protect and promote the personal dignity, peace, safety, security, health, and general welfare of all residents of Nashville and Davidson County,” the commission stated in a press release that it “must support transgender youths’ access to health care in Nashville.”
The human relations commission specifically highlighted three bills – SB1/HB1, SB5, and SB3/HB9 – that it claims are “harmful” to the transgender community.
SB1/HB1, titled, ‘The Protecting Children from Gender Mutilation Act’ would, according to its summary, forbid healthcare providers from performing or administering to underage children medical procedures or treatments for the purposes of enabling the child to identify with the opposite gender.
The bill was originally introduced in November after it was revealed that Vanderbilt University Medical Center was providing transgender surgeries to minors, The Tennessee Star previously reported. In response to the revelation, many Tennessee lawmakers called for legislation banning any transgender medical intervention on minors.
SB5, if made law, would “enact the “Youth Health Protection Act,” which generally prohibits certain medical practices as described below upon a minor to facilitate the minor’s desire to present or appear in a manner that is inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
The last bill criticized by the commission is SB3/HB9, which, if enacted, would ban drag show performances “on public property” or anywhere they “could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.”
“Current research demonstrates policies that discriminate against transgender people exacerbates mental and physical health problems,” the human relations commission asserted; adding, “Transgender youth are a vulnerable group and laws that make it more difficult for them to receive gender-affirming care will isolate them even further. These issues can be addressed by ensuring that healthcare policies and practices are collectively compassionate and adhere to best practices as indicated by healthcare providers.”
However, the medical community as a whole is far from agreement that “gender-affirming care” – and the life-long changes in the body that can result from it – is the most compassionate course for children prior to the end of puberty.
The Star News Network reported in November that “now radicalized establishment health organizations, such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, are making claims policies protecting minors from irreversible damage due to transgender treatments discriminate against children and adolescents who claim a gender identity that is incompatible with their biological sex.”
California endocrinologist Dr. Michael Laidlaw told Lumen-News in April 2022, “It is unethical to put kids on a pathway to sterilization as early as age 8 or 9, before they know anything about sex or human development. Blocking normal puberty can be permanently harmful to the bone, brain, and social development of kids.”
Transgender surgeries, Laidlaw said, “cause irreversible damage, and the healthy organs that are removed – such as breasts, ovaries, and testicles – can never be replaced.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Davidson County Courthouse” by euthman. CC BY-SA 2.0.
