(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Montana governor signs bill banning gender-affirming care for minors – Daily Montanan [1] ['Blair Miller', 'More From Author', '- April'] Date: 2023-04-28 Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 99 on Friday, the bill that bans gender-affirming care for minors in Montana and opens up providers of the care to punishment and civil actions, according to his spokesperson. “As the governor indicated in his amendatory veto letter, he is committed to protecting Montana children from invasive medical treatments that can permanently alter their healthy, developing bodies,” Governor’s Office spokesperson Kaitlin Price said in a statement. The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Fuller, R-Whitefish, has been one of the most widely criticized in the 2023 legislative session, as opponents, including trans teenagers, parents of trans children, and the medical community have showed up by the hundreds to rally against the bill and others targeting the LGBTQ+ community in Montana and testify in committees at every opportunity. This week, the Montana Free Press reported Gianforte’s son David, who is nonbinary, told him the bill was harmful and asked him not to sign it. After Republicans sent the bill to his desk earlier this month, Gianforte asked for amendments that clarify “female” means a person with XX chromosomes who produces eggs and “male” means someone who has XY chromosomes and would produce sperm. His amendment also says the definition of “gender” is that “an individual’s gender may or may not align with the individual’s sex.” “’Gender affirming care’ for children is Orwellian Newspeak, a seemingly innocuous, even solicitous phrase that masks its true nature of permanent, invasive, life-altering medical and surgical procedures, performed on children whose young minds and bodies are still developing,” Gianforte said in his veto letter requesting amendments. Two Republicans in the House and two in the Senate voted against Gianforte’s amendments, along with all Democrats, but the rest of the Republican caucus supported the final version of the bill. Fuller and proponents of the bill have repeatedly said the bill is aimed at “protecting children” from receiving hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care they have argued is irreversible and should not be done before they reach adulthood. “I’m grateful he signed the bill and I’m grateful he agreed to support the health and protect the children of Montana,” Fuller told the Daily Montanan on Friday afternoon. “I’ve devoted my life’s career to protecting children. I’m not about to stop just because I’m old.” Opponents of the bill, including Democrats, have repeatedly said the bill does nothing but harm trans children in Montana, disallowing them to be the people they want to be and further endangering their mental health. Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, is now prohibited from the House floor after being censured by House Republicans for not tamping down protests on Monday that came about because the House Speaker would no longer recognize her on the floor after she criticized Republicans for their votes in favor of the governor’s amendments to SB99. House Minority Leader Kim Abbott, D-Helena, said in a statement Friday that SB99 eliminates the rights of health care providers, parents and children. “I’m deeply disappointed in the Governor for signing this bill into law and prioritizing poisonous political rhetoric over Montanans’ fundamental liberties. But I want Montana’s transgender, nonbinary, and Two Spirit youth and their families to know – you belong here, and no single law will ever stop Montana Democrats from fighting for your right to live your lives in freedom,” Abbott said. Senate Democratic leadership said it continues to stand with Montanans “defending their rights against a government that seeks to erase them.” “The events that unfolded this last week, including the silencing of a trans member of the Montana Legislature, can only be understood in light of the persistent effort to silence this community through bills that target their freedoms,” the leadership said in a statement. “SB 99 is one of those bills. In addition to being scientifically baseless and riddled with misinformation, SB 99 places the government in between parents, their families, and their doctors, attempting to block them from medically proven, life-saving care. By placing his signature on it, the Governor has signaled his position against this community.” Other bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community are on their way to the governor’s desk or have been signed. Among those are Senate Bill 458, which defines sex in Montana law and involves some of the same definitions as SB99. The Senate gave final approval to SB458 on Thursday, and Gianforte signed House Bill 361, which would allow schoolchildren to misgender their classmate, this week, Price said in an email. [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/04/28/montana-governor-signs-bill-banning-gender-affirming-care-for-minors/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/