A bill banning child gender transition procedures including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries, has sailed through Wyoming’s state Senate and will likely pass the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
Senate File 144, also known as Chloe’s law, passed in the Senate Wednesday after testimony from Luka Hein, a young woman who regrets medically transitioning in adolescence who previously shared her story with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Hein underwent a double-mastectomy and cross-sex hormones at age 16 but came to regret it after realizing medical interventions hadn’t resolved her underlying mental health problems; she says doctors and nurses misled and manipulated her into undergoing the irreversible procedures. (RELATED: ‘Liars And Mutilators’: Woman Sues Hospital That Allegedly Gave Her Mastectomy, Testosterone As A Child)
The legislation prohibits medically transitioning children to the opposite sex, makes the procedures grounds for suspending or revoking doctors’ medical licenses and bans insurance coverage for children’s sex change procedures.
“At 21 I now live with lifelong complications from [transitioning] that I have no idea if they will go away,” Luka told legislators in her Friday testimony. “My joints constantly hurt. I have no idea if I will ever be able to carry a child someday, not to mention the fact that my breasts are gone. There was nothing wrong with my body; I was just a teenager that was uncomfortable, and instead I was pushed down a path that taught me that growing up was a disease that needed to be cured with surgery and medicine.”
“At 16 I did not understand what the long-term impacts of this care would be — if you could call it care — but the doctors were eager to push me down this path,” she said.
The bill is named after a different detransitioner, Chloe Cole, who had a similar experience; she went on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and received a double mastectomy to remove her breasts between ages 13 to 17, but came to regret the procedures and returned to a female identity. Both Hein and Cole said medical professionals told them they were at high risk of suicide if they didn’t undergo gender transitions.
I am introducing Chloe’s Law in WY. Legislation to make childhood mutilation illegal. @ChoooCole Chloe’s bravery inspired me to take action. It is fitting to name the bill after her. pic.twitter.com/YhLy4CAYmK
— Senator Anthony Bouchard (@AnthonyBouchard) January 19, 2023
“I am introducing Chloe’s Law in WY. Legislation to make childhood mutilation illegal,” Republican Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard wrote Jan. 19. “[Cole’s] bravery inspired me to take action. It is fitting to name the bill after her.”
Bouchard did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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