Louisiana Senate passes resurrected gender-affirming care ban

The Louisiana Senate voted Monday to pass a controversial bill to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, advancing the measure even after it was defeated by a GOP-controlled state Senate committee last month.

The measure, House Bill 648, seeks to bar health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to patients younger than 18 under the threat of having their professional licenses revoked.

The bill died late last month in a state Senate committee, with Sen. Fred Mills (R) casting the deciding vote. In a rare occurrence, Louisiana senators this month voted to recommit the bill to another committee, giving it a second chance at life.

House Bill 648 was passed Friday by the state Senate Judiciary “A” Committee, a majority Republican committee that typically debates legislation and issues pertaining to the criminal justice system. 

None of the committee’s three Democrats was present for Friday’s vote, with one, state Sen. Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge, telling local media he was skipping the committee meeting because “the bill is not germane to Jud A subject matter.”

On Monday, the bill passed the full Senate in a 29-10 vote largely along party lines.

Republicans on Monday argued the measure is necessary to protect children from making medical decisions they may later regret, asserting that gender-affirming medical interventions including puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and surgeries are experimental and harmful to long-term development.

“This isn’t complicated. Kids should not have access to permanent medical procedures in order to affirm an identity they might outgrow,” state Sen. Jeremy Stine (R) said Monday on the Senate floor.

Gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and adults is supported by most major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

State Sen. Jay Morris (R) said Monday those and similar medical groups cannot be trusted because they have been “infiltrated” by transgender and abortion rights activists.

Mills referenced a Louisiana Health Department report published last year that found no gender-affirming surgical procedures were performed on Medicaid-enrolled minors in the state between 2017 and 2021.

The prescription of medications including puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to treat gender dysphoria in minors during the same time period was also exceedingly rare, the report found.

Mills said he has been “attacked nationwide by hate” since breaking the tie to defer the bill in last month’s Senate committee vote. “But I’m not sorry for my vote,” he said.

“I don’t care about getting reelected, I care about human dignity,” state Sen. Gerald Boudreaux (D) said Monday while opposing the bill. “If my vote gets me to stay home and not get reelected, so be it. I haven’t run from a fight my entire life.”

The bill now heads back to the GOP-controlled House, where it is expected to pass. It will then go to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), who has said he opposes legislation that targets the transgender community, as well as the LGBTQ community more broadly.

“Members of this community believe they’re being attacked for who they are,” Edwards told reporters during a press conference last month. “Members of the trans community are much more likely than other young people to have suicidal ideation or attempts or to actually be successful.”

“These kinds of bills do not tend to help with that,” Edwards added, “and in fact, they aggravate that situation and then cause it to be worse.”

Roughly half of transgender and nonbinary young people in a report released last month by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization, said they had seriously considered suicide over the last year. The same report found more than 30 percent of LGBTQ youths believe laws and policies that target LGBTQ people have worsened their mental health.