By: Joshua Paladino
A bill in the California State Legislature would mandate puberty-blocking drugs and sex change operations for transgender minors in the foster care system.
Assembly Bill 2119, the Foster Care Gender Affirming Health Care and Behavioral Health Services Act, advanced to the Senate Human Services Committee on Tuesday.
The bill bans counselors, parents, foster parents, and social workers from guiding children toward identification with their biological gender. The bill states, “A licensed professional, or any other individual, shall not subject a foster child or nonminor dependent to any treatment, intervention, or conduct that seeks to change the foster child’s or nonminor dependent gender identity.”
It mandates three broad plans of treatment for transgender or gender non-conforming children, including interventions to suppress the development of internal secondary sex characteristics, interventions to align the patient’s appearance or physical body with the patient’s gender identity, and interventions to alleviate symptoms of clinically significant distress resulting from gender dysphoria.
The bill states that 12-year-old children “have established rights to privately seek and consent to outpatient mental health counseling and treatment.”
According to the bill’s sponsors, its purpose is to counteract the biased treatment that transgender and non-gender conforming children face.
The bill already succeeded in the lower chamber, passing on May 22 by a 46-22 vote.
