Posted BY: | NwoReport
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday signed into law a total ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender children, despite calls for him to veto the bill and threats of incoming litigation.
Lee also signed off on a new law to prohibit “adult-oriented” entertainment, including “male and female impersonators,” from public property and limit it to age-restricted venues. The legislation, filed after a flurry of drag show controversies in Tennessee, is not a total ban of drag, though opponents worry it could open the door to wider legal battles over the performance art.
The new health law bans medications such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments to treat any underlying gender dysphoria cause, affecting Tennessee children who identify as transgender and nonbinary. Surgeries, which were rare in Tennessee, are also banned.
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Children who currently take the medications will have until March 31, 2024, to cycle off of treatment. The law, which was fast-tracked by the legislature’s Republican supermajority in this year’s legislative session, will officially go into effect this summer.
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to sue over the bill.
“We will not allow this dangerous law to stand. Certain politicians and Governor Lee have made no secret of their intent to discriminate against youth who are transgender or their willful ignorance about the life-saving health care they seek to ban,” the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, and Lambda Legal said in a joint statement Thursday.
