Thirteen Republican lawmakers from Wyoming are proposing a bill that would sway custody disputes in favor of parents and guardians who do not allow gender reassignment treatments for children.
If House Bill 156, the Child Welfare Act, were to pass, courts and other child protection agencies would be required to consider that it is not in a child's best interest to undergo gender reassignment surgery or take puberty blockers or cross-breach drugs . Sex hormones to change gender.
The bill exempts children who require puberty blockers from treatment for precocious puberty and intersex children who undergo gender-affirming treatments.
“Children suffering from gender confusion or gender dysphoria deserve the utmost compassion and care,” bill sponsor Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams said in a text message to Cowboy State Daily on Monday. “Injecting them with life-changing drugs and removing healthy body parts is the exact opposite of compassion and caring, and there is not a single long-term study that proves otherwise.”
She said she would not “sit and wait for Americans to wake up from this nightmare, as many European countries have done.”
Sweden, Finland and France have recently introduced restrictions or guardrails on gender reassignment treatments for children.
The State House received HB 156 for introduction on Monday. There must be a two-thirds majority in both chambers to take effect during the Legislature's current budget session.
“From affirming parents who love them”
Erin Reed, a trans rights blogger and partner of Montana's only transgender state representative, criticized HB 156 in a Monday story, saying it was about taking trans children away from their parents.
Reed said Rodriguez-Williams' bill raises “real concerns that transgender youth could be discouraged from empowering their parents, who love them and follow established medical guidelines.”
Reed pointed to House Majority Leader Chip Neiman's support of the 13-sponsor bill and said Neiman's involvement makes it “a significant threat to passage.”
Which it doesn't
The bill enshrines in all child custody laws in the State of Wyoming the presumption that chemical or surgical alteration of a child's fertility system or the removal of breasts (in the case of a female child) is not in the child's best interest.
This presumption would come into effect after custody disputes and child custody cases have already begun, but it does not constitute a new trigger for the initiation of a child custody case.
For example, the Wyoming Child Protection Act authorizes authorities and health care professionals to remove a child from his or her parents if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the child is being abused, neglected, abandoned, lost, endangered by his or her environment, or a danger to himself or others represents.
HB 156 does not add “treatment based on sex” to that list.
What it does
However, the bill would impact the way courts, prosecutors and child protection agencies would conduct themselves once a custody case begins.
If two parents divorced and the mother wanted to obtain sex reassignment treatment for her child, that would be a blow against her in the custody battle.
If potential guardians were to fight for custody of a child placed in foster care, the courts would favor those unwilling to take a child for gender reassignment surgery or chemicals.
The presumption applies across a broad spectrum, influencing the way judges can determine a child's best interests in every case, from adoption to disputes over whether paternity testing should be allowed to grandparents' visitation rights.
Because, Montana
Reed suspected sponsors were pushing HB 156 in response to a child welfare case in Montana.
A teenager with gender dysphoria was separated from her parents and sent to Wyoming for treatment after a suicide attempt, according to reports. This worried parents because there are no laws against gender reassignment treatments for children in Wyoming.
However, the state's personal injury law prohibits female genital mutilation.
A medical industry representative countered, telling Cowboy State Daily that it was unthinkable for doctors in Wyoming to perform genital surgery on children.
The treatments are also legal in Montana, as a state court blocked the ban from taking effect in 2023.
Clair McFarland can be reached at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com.
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