As the left continues to push a radical transgender agenda on the American people — especially kids — right-leaning (and right-thinking) states are beginning to fight back. Georgia has joined the list of those states that are pushing back against the trans cult.
The Georgia state Senate passed SB 140, which would ban transgender surgeries for minors, as well as hormone replacement therapy. The bill has already passed the state House, which means that it now goes to the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp (R) for his signature.
As WSB reports, “Under the bill, transgender children currently receiving these medical procedures would be able to continue them. However, no new children could begin those procedures when the law goes into effect on July 1.”
The House stripped a provision from the Senate’s original bill that would protect doctors who perform such surgeries or prescribe hormone replacement from lawsuits and even criminal charges. Doctors will also lose their licenses if they violate the law under the bill as it was passed.
“This is exactly about letting a child not have procedures irreversible, permanent, lifelong procedures done on them, chosen by adults rather than themselves,” Rep. Mark Newton (R-123rd district) told WSB.
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Naturally, the left is apoplectic because it doesn’t allow absolute open transgender treatments for kids.
“That is what is so hard to think about, that people are making political decisions and willing to hurt kids for political advancement here in the state of Georgia,” Georgia Equality’s Jeff Graham said to WSB.
While the bill sounds like an encouraging development — especially since it’s hacking off the LGBTQUGH lobby so much — there are some serious flaws in this legislation.
For starters, faith-based organizations didn’t get a seat at the table when the bill was being drafted. The lack of teeth in the bill means that withstanding a court challenge will be tough.
Notably, the bill only bans hormone replacement, but it doesn’t bar doctors from prescribing puberty blockers for gender treatment. But the worst part of the legislation is that it carves out a wide exception for “medically necessary” treatments.
The provision of the bill is vague; it merely makes exceptions for “Treatments for medical conditions other than gender dysphoria or for the purpose of sex reassignment where such treatments are deemed medically necessary,” along with some more specific carveouts for children born with ambiguous genitalia and similar abnormalities.
That carveout is open enough to allow a doctor to simply declare gender treatments “medically necessary” and get around the law. It’s easy to see how troubling that is and how it takes the teeth out of the bill.
In a statement to PJ Media, Cole Muzio, president of Frontline Policy Council, said, “Across the country, states are taking action to protect children from the barbaric and anti-science woke agenda to castrate, sterilize, and mutilate them. There is an industry that now profits off confusing, harming, and doing irreparable damage to children, and there is a groundswell to fight back. SB 140 is Georgia’s attempt to push back, and we are grateful for those in the General Assembly who wanted to do something bold on this issue.”
Muzio also commented on the weaknesses of the bill when he said, “Unfortunately, this bill falls short and will be among the weakest in the country due to the efforts of its sponsor and a small number of legislators to water it down and deny children full protections. While we are prayerful that this will stop some abuse of children in our state, this battle must continue as a result of the failures of this bill.”
Georgia’s Republican legislatures have a tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or to at least water the victory down so much that it fails to taste sweet, so this bill is par for the course. Maybe this is just a first step, but SB 140 becomes less and less encouraging the deeper you dig into it.
Read the text of the bill here:
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