Rescuing Trans Children

It’s only two proposed pieces of federal legislation. But it is well past time that some Congresspeople get serious about the current rage about mutilating children. Some states have already passed similar pieces of legislation-- e.g. Alabama-- but it is good to see our members of Congress get off the sidelines and get into the game.

Three Congresspeople just introduced a new bill that would hold physicians liable for the damage they inflict on trans children. 

Just the News reports:

The Protect Minors from Medical Malpractice Act, sponsored by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Doug LaMalfa of California, would make medical practitioners liable for "any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms" that result from gender-transition procedures on minors.

These include prescribing or administering puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones, or performing surgeries such as mastectomies and vaginoplasties.

 

The legislation gives minors and legal guardians the right to sue medical practitioners for transitions up to 30 years after the minors turn 18. They could seek declaratory or injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorney's fees.

The bills would apply to all transition procedures with an element of "interstate or foreign commerce," including digital communications, payments and the instruments used in surgery.

That’s not all. Considering that schools and school counselors and school administrators are now able to collude in facilitating a child’s transition, without even informing parents of what they are doing, the Congresspeople have proposed another piece of legislation:

The three lawmakers also introduced a related bill, the Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act, to withhold federal funding from K-12 schools that facilitate gender transitions, "affirm" a student's gender identity, hide that identity from the student's parents or encourage them to transition their child.

Of course, we all know well that these proposals are merely gestures-- for now. They are not going to be taken up in Democratic controlled legislative bodies. And yet, they are a first step, one that will hopefully lead to further steps to get America out of the business of mutilating children.