A8 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022
BY ANNE BRANIGINOn the last day of its legisla-
tive session, Alabama passed two
bills that could significantly curb
the rights of transgender chil-
dren in the state, including one
that would make it a crime for
doctors and parents to provide
gender-affirming care to trans-
gender minors, one of the most
extreme bills of its kind in the
nation.
The other would restrict the
bathrooms and locker rooms
trans kids can use, and forbid
educators from talking about
gender or sexuality from kinder-
garten through the fifth grade.
Both bills now await the signa-
ture of Gov. Kay Ivey (R), who is
expected to approve them.
The education bill came as a
shock to Democrats and trans
rights supporters. The original
version, which the House passed
in February, barred trans chil-
dren from using bathrooms and
locker rooms that align with
their gender identity from kin-
dergarten through high school.
But on Thursday morning,
Republican state senators added
a surprise amendment mirroring
what critics call the “Don’t Say
Gay” bill in Florida. The Senate
passed the bill, which went back
to the House for approval late
Thursday afternoon.
The bills come as a number of
states have proposed and enact-
ed an unprecedented wave of
bills targeting the rights of
L GBTQ people. Much of the
legislation has focused on trans-
gender children.
Last week, Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis (R) signed a bill limit-
ing the discussion of gender
identity and sexual orientation
for younger students. In Arizona,
Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed two
bills that would restrict gender-
affirming care for transgender
youths and prohibit them from
playing female sports.
Both Alabama bills passed by
substantial majorities in the
state legislature. Doctors and
trans rights advocates said the
mere passage of the bills could
endanger the lives of trans mi-
nors, even if they are blocked by
courts.
“The Alabama legislature will
have blood on their hands,” s aid
Kaitlin Welborn, a reproductive
rights attorney for the Alabama
chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union. Welborn cited
reports that teen suicides in-
creased after the passage of simi-
lar bills, including one enacted
and then blocked by a judge in
Arkansas last year.
Organizations are already
moving to block the Alabama
bill. The American Civil Liberties
Union, its Alabama chapter, the
Transgender Law Center, Lamb-
da Legal, and law firm Cooley
said Thursday before the bill
passed, that they plan to sue the
state.
Another coalition, including
the Southern Poverty Law Center
and the Human Rights Cam-
paign, said they will also bring a
legal challenge to the health bill
if Ivey signs it into law.
Of the two pieces of legisla-
tion, the health bill drew the
most attention during the legis-
lative session this year. It would
bar trans youths 18 and under
from accessing gender-affirming
medical care, falsely claiming
such treatments are “experimen-
tal.”
Parents and medical profes-
sionals who provide gender-tran-
sition care to children could be
charged with a felony, which
carries a prison sentence of up to
10 years and a fine of up to
$15,000. The list of banned treat-
ments includes puberty blockers
and hormone therapy as well as
surgical procedures. Alabama
doctors say gender-affirming
surgeries are not performed on
minors in the state.
Alabama lawmakers have
tried to pass the health bill for
the past three years. Though it
had passed the state Senate, the
House had never voted on the
measure until Thursday. Sup-
porters of the bill, called the
Vulnerable Child Compassion
and Protection Act, said its goal
is to protect minors from making
medical decisions they could lat-
er regret.
State Rep. Wes Allen (R), one
of its sponsors, has compared the
health bill to laws that make it
illegal for minors to vape.
“We pass bills from time to
time to protect minors from
vaping and drinking becausethese minors are not ready to
make these long-term decisions,”
he said.
Allen repeated the compari-
son Thursday on the House floor
when he said, “Their brains are
not developed to make the deci-
sions long term about what these
medications and surgeries do totheir body.” The conservative,
who is running for Alabama
secretary of state, did not answer
state questions from Democrats
as they challenged him on those
claims Thursday.
“You’re saying this is about
children. It is not,” said Rep.
Chris England, who chairs the
state Democratic Party. “What it
is about is scoring political
points and using those children
as collateral damage.”
England noted that minors
cannot make those health deci-
sions by themselves but need thesupport of their parents and
medical providers.
The Alabama Chapter of the
American Academy of Pediatrics
and the Medical Association of
the State of Alabama are opposed
to the bill. According to Ala-
bama.com, the bill was a late
addition to the session Thursday,made at the urging of Republi-
can state senators.
Democratic lawmakers and
trans rights supporters were also
taken aback by the changes to
the bathroom bill, which now
includes a provision that mirrors
the Florida law, which makes it
illegal for educators to talk about
sexual orientation or gender
identity from kindergarten to
third grade.
The Alabama bill goes further,
barring such “instruction” until
the fifth grade. It also mandates
school staff to alert parents if achild tells them they are trans-
gender.
Morissa Ladinsky, an associate
professor of pediatrics at the
University of Alabama at Bir-
mingham and a leader on its
gender health team, said she is
one of a handful of physicians
who provide gender-affirming
care to minors in the state.
Ladinsky argued the bill is rife
with misinformation and essen-
tially asks legislators to serve as
doctors. “We’ve lost sense of
what is science, what is fact, and
what is reality,” she said.
Gender-affirming care “isn’t
just about writing prescriptions,”
Ladinsky said, but also about
providing nonjudgmental care
and helping to meet the needs of
trans kids and their families.
Ladinsky will typically work
with young patients for one to
three years before they start
puberty blockers or hormone
therapy, a decision that is made
with a team of doctors as well as
the family, she said.
Without access to gender-af-
firming care, trans children are
at higher risk of severe gender
dysphoria, which could trigger
depression and thoughts of sui-
cide. The passage of the health
bill will “decimate hope for so
many people,” said Ladinsky,
who said she fears for the trans
kids she “may never meet.”
Jeff Walker, an information
technology director whose
daughter is trans, said he didn’t
sleep well Wednesday night after
learning the two bills would be
on the agenda for state lawmak-
ers. During work on Thursday,
Walker watched live feeds of the
sessions in both chambers, alter-
nating from one video stream to
the other.
With both bills passing, Walk-
er said he and his family now
face the kind of hard decisions
confronting families of trans
children in other parts of the
country. What does this mean for
their family? Do they stay in
Alabama, the only home his
daughter knows?
While legislation targeting
trans children has forced some
parents, previously vocal about
their support for their kids, to go
silent, Walker plans to continue
speaking publicly. “It is impor-tant to put a real face and a name
to this,” he said.
Walker and his daughter were
at the White House last week to
talk about the spike in legislation
against transgender people. He
and his daughter spent her
spring break in Montgomery, the
state capital, “talking to anyone
who would listen about this,” he
said.
“We’re just a regular family
that lives down the street. We go
on vacation, we go out to eat
dinner, and we sit around and
watch movies together just like
normal families do,” Walker said.
“We would love for all of this to
just go away and us to be able to
just be who we are.”
Welborn, of the American Civil
Liberties Union in Alabama,
doubts the state ban on gender-
affirming care will go into effect.
With the promised legal chal-
lenges, there will likely be an
injunction, which would pause
any enforcement of it.
Alabama could also face chal-
lenges from the Biden adminis-
tration. The White House has
made clear it believes these types
of bills violate federal law and
the Constitution. The Justice De-
partment also issued guidance
last week “reminding” state at-
torneys general of their duty to
protect trans youths against dis-
crimination, including when
they seek gender-affirming care.
Federal officials have also in-
dicated they consider transgen-
der students protected under
Title IX, which bars education
discrimination on the basis of
sex and gender. Alabama should
expect to lose federal funding,
Welborn said, and could also
spend millions of dollars defend-
ing its laws in court.
Ladinsky, the physician, said
she felt “sick” knowing the bills
could become law. “What you
saw in that chamber is called
Alabama political hardball,” she
said. It was “painful” for her to
see trans kids “weaponized and
turned into a political football
for lawmakers” this session.
As the signing of the legisla-
tion looms, Ladinsky is support-
ing her trans patients. “We have
their backs and we will never
turn our backs on them,” she
said.Alabama lawmakers pass bills curbing rights of transgender kids
ISTOCK/WASHINGTON POST ILLUSTRATION
One of the bills would make it a crime to provide affirming care to
trans minors. The other would restrict bathrooms they can use and
forbid educators from talking about gender with younger students.“We would love for all of this to just go away
and us to be able to just be who we are.”
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