Oklahoma House passes gender-affirming treatment bill

House Bill 2177, by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, and Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, not solely would ban all gender-reassignment therapies for minors, together with hormones, puberty-blockers and surgical procedure, but additionally would bar state funds or non-public insurers from masking these procedures for anybody, together with adults.

Adults might nonetheless obtain the therapies however must pay for them out of their very own pockets.

The bill handed 80-18 alongside strict celebration strains, with Republicans arguing that they had been defending youngsters and Democrats contending that they really had been doing the other.

HB 2177 is just like Senate Bill 613, by Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, which handed the Senate two weeks in the past. SB 613 doesn’t embrace a prohibition on non-public insurance coverage and would apply solely to minors.

Although the result was not unsure, the House spent greater than two hours on HB 2177 as Democrats peppered West with questions and compelled debate. The proceedings had been intently watched by a crowd principally against the bill that allow its emotions be identified via applause and occasional outbursts. A number of had been ordered out of the gallery; after announcement of the ultimate vote, somebody could possibly be heard shouting, “You’re killing children.”

A couple of minutes later, Olsen and fellow Rep. Bob Ed Culver, R-Tahlequah, had been doused with water in a passageway exterior the chamber. At least one particular person was reportedly arrested and Culver stated he would press costs as a result of the particular person scuffled with Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers.

West and most of these talking in favor of HB 2177 insisted it isn’t anti-trans and tended to explain transgender folks, and particularly transgender minors, as mentally sick or psychologically broken.

Rep. Randy Randleman, R-Eufaula, the Legislature’s solely little one psychologist, stated “transgenderism” is generally the results of the particular person’s “relationship with their father” or another trauma, an evaluation that didn’t set effectively with Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, D-Norman, who has a transgender little one with whom he’s shut.

Rep. J.J. Humphrey, R-Lane, by no means essentially the most delicate House member, stated permitting folks to imagine they’re transgender is corresponding to permitting somebody who thinks they’re Superman to leap off a constructing.

“The very fact you have to request a surgery to change your sex, Scooby-Doo would call that a clue,” Humphrey stated. “And Scooby-Doo would also say, ‘Ruh-roh.’”

West and Olsen introduced their bill as principally about defending minors from unproven, harmful and within the case of surgical procedure, irreversible therapies and procedures, however in apply the better impression is likely to be the ban on insurance coverage protection for adults.

“With the emergency (clause) on this bill and the insurance clause, we are effectively saying if folks cannot afford the out-of-pocket (expenses) they need to survive, they cannot stay in Oklahoma,” stated Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, the Legislature’s solely overtly non-binary member. “That’s saying our trans community is not welcome in Oklahoma.”

West, a cabinetmaker by commerce who has immersed himself in points similar to COVID-19 precautions, vaccines and abortion, acknowledged he has no medical coaching, however stated he has studied transgender therapies and procedures sufficient to know that none are unanimously endorsed by professionals within the subject. That, he stated, is motive sufficient to forestall minors from receiving something aside from counseling and psychological care.

But he, too, sounded skeptical of the notion that many, if any, individuals are really transgender.

“Denying the truth that we are either male or female hurts real people, especially vulnerable children,” West stated in closing debate. “Science and common sense tells us children are not mature enough to properly evaluate the serious lifelong ramifications when making important medical decisions. This bill will allow these children the opportunity to grow and realize who they are before receiving life-altering procedures.”