A Republican-controlled legislative body in South Dakota passed a bill that would criminalize doctors who treat trans youth under 16 with hormones and gender reassignment surgery.
Gavino Garay has more.
Controversial South Dakota trans bill moves forward
TEASE: A bill passes in South Dakota banning gender reassignment and hormone therapy in trans youth The South Dakota Republican-controlled state House has voted to proceed with legislation that would ban doctors from treating transgender youth under the age of 16 with hormones and gender reassignment surgery.
The bill would see doctors jailed for providing such treatment to transgender children.
The bill passed on Wednesday by a 46 to 23 vote, but has yet to clear the state senate.
One of the bill's main backers, Representative Fred Deutsch, tweeted out news of the bill's passage and said it protects quote "gender confused" children.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) REPUBLICAN STATE REPRESENTATIVE FRED DEUTSCH, SAYING: "This is a bill of compassion, it simply says wait until your 16th birthday that's all, just wait." The Human Rights Campaign swiftly blasted the bill as "anti-trangender." In a statement, HRC President Alphonso David said Representative Deutsch and other are "spreading misinformation and using vicious, harmful rhetoric" on what it means to be transgender, and critics of the bill say it could further harm trans children already grappling with the challenges of adolescence.
It follows the introduction in South Carolina of measures that could see the licenses of doctors who treat trans children revoked, one of a series of such measures in conservative U.S. states.
The legislation is expected to be voted on by the State senate as early as next week.