Arkansas Senate Passes Bill Banning Treatments for Transgender Youth

The Arkansas Senate has passed a bill that would prevent medical practitioners from providing healthcare to trans minors in a shocking blow to the LGBT+ community.

The senate passed HB 1570 on Monday (29 March), making Arkansas the first state to ban puberty blockers and hormone treatment for trans youth.

The bill will now go to governor Asa Hutchinson to be signed into law. LGBT+ rights activists are calling on the governor to veto the dehumanising law.

Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the American Civil Liberties Union...

The Arkansas Senate on Monday approved banning gender confirming treatments for minors, sending the governor a restriction on transgender youth that has been criticized by medical and child welfare groups.

The majority Republican Senate voted 28-7 in favor of the legislation. If the bill is enacted it would be the first prohibition of its kind in the country, opponents say. The bill would prohibit doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment or surgery to minors, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment.

“This bill sets out to...