DRACONIAN

Tennessee Bill Would Charge Parents With Child Abuse for Permitting Sex Change Therapy for Kids

Adults who help prepubescent children get sex reassignment therapy could be charged with child abuse.

Two Tennessee lawmakers filed legislation to ban sex reassignment therapy for children and charge adults helping a child get treatment with child abuse, The Tennessean reports. Republicans Rep. John Ragan and Sen. Janice Bowling filed a bill that would bar prepubescent children from getting “sexual identity change therapy”—which includes hormone replacement, puberty blockers, or other treatments that would “change the sexual identity or physical appearance of a patient.” Ragan told the newspaper that prepubescent children are “probably not old enough to decide they want to change their sex.”

The bill requires minors who have hit puberty to get parental consent and recommendations from three doctors—including a psychiatrist. An adult helping a child receive treatment beyond those requirements would be charged with child abuse, and physicians involved would be subject to discipline for professional misconduct by their medical board. It's unclear whether medically necessary treatments for intersex children would be exempt from the bill.