Looking for leadership in the race to protect children from radical gender mutilation? Look no further than Southern states, where 12 out of 16 have stepped up since 2021 against this shocking practice.
These so-called “therapies” include everything from puberty blockers and hormone therapy to genital mutilation surgery. The 12 Southern states that banned the “treatment” account for half of the national total that moved to protect children from medical violence.
Of states considered Southern, only Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia have failed to implement these protections for minors.
Interestingly, Democratic governors in Louisiana, Kentucky, and North Carolina vetoed the child protection measures. Each of the state legislatures are dominated by Republicans, and each overrode the veto.
Arkansas had the unusual distinction of having a GOP governor, Asa Hutchinson, veto the bill. Its lawmakers likewise blew past his veto, making the state the first in the nation to implement these safeguards for children.
Pro-transgender activists loudly complain that the South is derailing their movement to establish gender as something that is fluid and subject to change.
South Carolina lawmakers want to ban minors from getting transgender surgery or hormone therapy
Shoutout to South Carolina for protecting our children— first with strict abortion laws and now leading the fight against the trans kids movement!https://t.co/Lj07uYqQAu
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) November 27, 2019
Adam Polanski of the Campaign for Southern Equality declared, “We’ve seen a long history of the South being used as a laboratory for anti-LGBT legislation.” He added that there is “experimentation” in the South because of the ease of passing conservative laws in “lopsided” state legislatures.
He conveniently ignored that laws he opposed were implemented to protect children and that adults may live their lives as they wish.
Another activist, Logan Casey with the Movement Advancement Project, worried that “many of the states in the South are effectively a single-party government.” As are other states such as New York, Illinois, and California, but it’s fine since their party is the Democrats.
Early on there was a trend for the courts to place roadblocks against state efforts to end these practices. That is changing.
In July, a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction against Tennessee’s laws issued by a lower court. The same appeals court six days later upheld Kentucky’s ban.
And Alabama in recent days became the third state to have its prohibition against these procedures being performed on minors solidified. Its law, held up in court for more than a year, provided for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for these actions against those younger than 19.
