State lawmakers working with anti-LGBTQ groups on bills targeting transgender children

Media Matters has just come out with a wonderful article which exposes who is behind the large number of state legislative bills targeting transgender children:

On January 22, a South Dakota legislative committee moved forward HB 1057, a dangerous bill that would make it a misdemeanor for medical professionals to provide trans youth with affirming medical care, such as prescribing lifesaving hormones or puberty blockers. While drafting the measure, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Fred Deutsch (R), reportedly consulted with an anti-trans group called the Kelsey Coalition that has ascended with the help of right-wing media. 

Anti-LGBTQ groups the Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Liberty Counsel also reportedly influenced the measure, which is expected to be voted on by the full South Dakota state House on January 29.

The Kelsey Coalition is a group of medical professionals, parents, and others who reject the identities of trans youth and advocate against affirming care. The Heritage Foundation gave the Kelsey Coalition its first major platform by featuring a member at a panel advocating against affirming the gender identities of trans youth.

According to The Washington Post, Deutsch attended a separate anti-trans event at the Heritage Foundation, at which organizations involved -- including the Kelsey Coalition -- released a co-branded parent resource guide on how to reject transgender children and advance policies to attack the trans community. Deutsch is also reported to have worked with extreme anti-LGBTQ groups Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel on the bill.

No one should be surprised that the Alliance Defending Freedom has its filthy hands in this mess. In 2017, that group was responsible for bills in 15 states which sought to interfere with transgender men, women, and children using the bathrooms which matched their gender identities. It even wrote the language included in the bills.

Media Matters points out two points about the South Dakota bill:

1. It goes contrary to scientific information which points out that affirming care actually benefits transgender children.

2. It is being mimicked in some form or another by several other state legislatures:

Lawmakers around the country are pushing for similar legislation, some of which share language with South Dakota’s bill, in states including Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. According to The Washington Post, “Some of the bills equate providing the medical treatments to child abuse, allowing parents to be reported to child welfare agencies and doctors’ licenses to be suspended or revoked.” Calling these treatments “child abuse” mirrors rhetoric pushed by right-wing media and anti-LGBTQ groups during coverage of a 2019 Texas child custody battle concerning a trans youth.

 It seems that the Kelsey Foundation is a new tread of a tired old program. In every way -  from its fake inviting tone, to its "personal stories," to the sly way it passes off bad science - the organization copies the modus operandi of the failed "ex-gay" movement.

And that is significant because with the anti-LGBTQ industry, it's always about targets. Now that it is no longer viable for them to completely stigmatize gays and lesbians, they've moved their bullseye to the transgender community.

Photo taken from the Human Rights Campaign.