Tennessee advances legislation to ban trans youth care ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/tenn-advances-bills-targeting-trans-youth-care-drag-96802811By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press
January 31, 2023, 2:22 PM
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee's Republican-dominant Legislature on Tuesday advanced a handful of proposals that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and severely limit where drag shows can take place.
The push in Tennessee comes as state lawmakers across the United States are introducing dozens of restriction s targeting LGBTQ people, even as critics warn that such proposals are discriminatory and harmful.
Tennessee in particular has been caught in the center of this conflict ever since video surfaced on social media last year of a Nashville doctor touting that gender-affirming procedures are “huge money makers" for hospitals.
If enacted, doctors would be prohibited from providing gender-affirming care to anyone under the age of 18, including prescribing puberty blockers and hormones. However, the legislation includes exceptions that would allow doctors to perform these medical services if they're treating an abnormality or if the patient's care had begun prior to July 1, 2023 — which is when the ban is proposed to go into effect — and the doctor believes ending the care would harm the patient.
