A bill banning gender-affirming care of any kind for minors is headed to the full Senate after the Committee on Public Health passed the measure along party lines following about four hours of testimony — the vast majority of which was against the measure.
Senate Bill 480 would prevent gender-affirming care including hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery for minors. The bill also criminalizes discussion of gender-affirming care potentially available in other states with a minor and their family by physicians and therapists. If approved, it will force Indiana youth on hormone replacement therapy to end that care by Dec. 31.
Parent after parent walked up to the podium to share the story of how gender-affirming care saved their child’s life. They shared their fears for their child’s physical and mental health when they are forced to discontinue hormone therapy at the end of this year if the legislation is approved.
Katie Blair, director of advocacy and public policy for the ACLU of Indiana, testified before the committee the bill strips parents of their rights to make appropriate medical decisions for their families. She said it is ironic the bill has been filed by others who would defend parents’ rights in other cases.
She said the measure is part of a “slate of hate” that includes an historic number of bills that single out LBGTQ+ Hoosiers.
“It’s discrimination plain and simple,” Blair said. The bill impacts First Amendment rights gagging doctors’ ability to discuss and provide a care plan with their patients and their families, she said.
“Families have a right to make important medical decisions like this that may simply save their child’s life,” Blair said.
One parent testified that she watched her son slip into a deep depression full of isolation and confusion for three years. He came out as pansexual in 2020 and began to question their gender identity. She said the family worked with a licensed clinical social worker, which helped until the care reached a plateau.
Through recommendations and referrals from their therapist they began to explore services at the Gender Health Clinic at Indianapolis’ Riley Hospital for Children, she said.
“I finally got my son back and seen the joy on his face. The kind of laughs that come from the belly. The genuine smiles not the once forced,” she said.
She now fears what will happen to her son and her family if his ability to continue with gender-affirming care ends.
“Please vote ‘no’ so I can use my parental right to choose the best medical practice and care for my son. Please vote ‘no; so I don’t have to plan my son’s funeral,” she said through tears.
Representatives from the clinic testified last month that they do not perform gender-affirming surgery on anyone under the age of 18. Transgender children can be prescribed puberty blockers and hormone therapy, in consultation with their families, mental health care providers and other physicians, but those treatments would be banned under the the bill if a minor is diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But the treatments would remain available for other medical diagnoses, such as for intersex individuals.
Testimony from parents and trans individuals continued in the same vein throughout the hearing.
Jillian Schranz of Dyer watched the testimony from her office. Schranz has been outspoken locally about the measure and its companion legislation in the house, contacting and sending information to State Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, and State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, and appearing before the Lake Central School Board. Schranz plans to testify in person Thursday against the House Bill 1608.
“I’m angry, as usual. It’s hard to watch something happening in real time knowing I’ve sent so many emails and so much evidence,” Schranz said.
A handful of doctors wearing white coats testified in support of the bill including an infectious disease specialist and a geriatric physician.
“It was so striking how being a doctor and being transphobic aren’t mutually exclusive,” Schranz said, adding she saw a lot of personal belief and bias presented as fact.
“I can say with near certainty that the legislators don’t have a trans kid in their life that they love. If they did, they’d feel very differently,” Schranz said.
“They are not listening to stories of gender-affirming care benefitting kids,” Schranz said.
“Our legislators are putting in place laws that state sanction bullying … just because they don’t like it,” she said.
Those in support of the measure blamed social pressures for an increase in the number of youth seeking gender-affirming care with some saying gender dysphoria would go away if a youth is allowed to go through puberty in the gender in which they were born.
Corrina Cone, who testified in support of the bill, said she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at 15 in 1994 and began to transition with hormone replacement therapy at 18. She went through surgery at 19. Today, Cone said she regrets the decision and was too young at the time to know the impact of her actions.
She said safeguards covering the procedure have been unlocked over the last 10 years and none are being applied to young people now. She cited nothing to substantiate the claim.
Linda Strickland, a neonatal nurse practitioner and retired Indiana University professor of medicine, said she supported the bill. Strickland said the brain is not fully developed until about the age of 25, so young people are basing their decisions on emotion and not evidence.
She said there are no studies showing what hormone replacement therapy does to a body’s “hormone milieu” in the long term. She cited a study prepared for Florida’s Medicaid program against the care.
“We need a pause in what we are doing,” Strickland said.
Alisha Hunter said the youngest of her three children is transgender and since then the family has been on a journey of doctors, therapists, psychologists and other experts to help her child live a life where they can feel normal.
“Not one time (has) this journey prompted me to reach out to an elected official nor should it,” Hunter said to audible cheers from people in the halls outside the Senate chambers. “You can’t legislate away transgender people. This bill is cruel. It stems from a place of fear and hate and an inability or unwillingness to educate yourself,” she said.
