Wisconsin Governor Vetoes Ban on Transgender Health Care
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed a bill to ban minors from accessing gender-affirming health treatments.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) vetoed a bill seeking to outlaw minors from accessing gender-affirming treatments to assist them in transitioning.
The bill, passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature, would have banned gender-affirming surgeries, which are rarely performed on minors, as well as access to treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The bill would have enforced that ban by revoking the license of any healthcare provider who assists in connecting minors with transition-related treatments.
The bill also contained a “tapering off” provision that would allow minors already on puberty blockers or hormones to slowly be weaned off them over a period of six months, meaning they could still receive gender-affirming care despite the practice being banned.
Wisconsin’s bill would have contained exceptions for intersex children or children with hormonal deficiencies, who would still be allowed to receive the exact same therapies that are prohibited for transgender children.
Critics of such provisions say it exposes the hypocrisy of bills restricting gender-affirming care, in that only children identifying as transgender are targeted, while intersex children are instead “forced” to conform to a certain binary gender presentation for the comfort of larger society.
Additionally, intersex children are often subjected to surgical interventions when they are just days old — which not only eliminates a patient’s ability to consent, but may increase a minor’s gender dysphoria if doctors and parents choose a gender presentation that does not match their gender identity.
The ban on gender-affirming care was passed by Republicans in October, along with two other bills targeting transgender participation in high school and collegiate sports. At the time, Evers threatened to veto any measure targeting the LGBTQ community, as reported by AM news radio outlet WTMJ.
“This type of legislation, and the rhetoric beget by pursuing it, harms LGBTQ people and kids’ mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ hate and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ Wisconsinites,” Evers wrote in his veto message. “I will veto any bill that makes Wisconsin a less safe, less inclusive, and less welcoming place for LGBTQ people and kids.”
Public hearings on the proposed law drew dozens of people to the state Capitol in Madison to testify against the measure, which Republicans have argued is necessary to prevent children from pursuing treatments that are irreversible and that they may grow to regret, reports the Associated Press.
Supporters of the bill have also argued that the consensus of most mainstream medical organizations — which currently endorses gender-affirming treatments for those suffering from gender dysphoria — may one day change as such medical interventions become more common and more studies are conducted on their efficacy.
State Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville), who introduced the Senate version of the proposed ban, blasted Evers as “out of touch” and accused him of pandering to far-left interests.
“Protecting children from invasive and irreversible medical interventions is the right thing to do from both a scientific and ethical standpoint,” Stroebel said in a statement.
So far, 22 states have passed laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors. While those laws have since gone into effect, many are being challenged as discriminatory or unconstitutional in various state and federal courts, with at least one federal judge declaring an identical measure in Arkansas to be unconstitutional.
Fair Wisconsin praised Evers for delivering on his promise.
“His veto is a reminder that…every trans person belongs in Wisconsin,” Megin McDonell, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement.
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