Arkansas became the first US state on Tuesday to ban medical sex change treatments for transgender minors, after the state General Assembly (Parliament) overruled the governor’s veto.
The new legislation prevents trans minors from receiving hormonal therapies and other medical treatments, as well as surgeries, for their sex change.
The proposal was approved last month by the Republican-controlled Arkansas Legislature and was vetoed on Monday by the state’s governor, the conservative Asa Hutchinson, who deemed the text “out of place” and “a product of the culture war. ” In U.S.A.
This Tuesday, the General Assembly annulled Hutchinson’s veto, in votes that remained 71 to 24 in the Lower House and 25 to 8 in the Senate.
Republicans in 17 US states have tabled a series of proposals to restrict access to medical therapies for transgender children and adolescents.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, in English) announced on its Twitter account that it is preparing a lawsuit against Arkansas law, because, it stressed, such treatments save lives and its prohibition could have “devastating” consequences and in some fatal cases.
“This decision ignores dozens of local doctors, national medical experts, as well as trans youth and their parents,” added the ACLU, which warned that it will be “relentless” in defending the rights of transgender youth in Arkansas.
.