Mayor candidates support, stay silent on Indiana law banning care for transgender kids

EVANSVILLE – Two supported it and the rest said nothing at all.

That was the reaction when the Courier & Press asked Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and the candidates looking to replace him what they thought about the new Indiana law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 480 last week, despite not initially understanding it. It makes gender reassignment surgery illegal for anyone younger than 18 and forces any minor undergoing hormone therapy to stop by Dec. 31.

Proponents cast it as a way to protect children, while some medical professionals, critics and trans advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, called it dangerous and a "coordinated campaign to drive transgender people, particularly youth, out of public life."

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit on behalf of four transgender minors who would lose health services if it’s enacted. The law is set to take effect July 1.

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In Evansville, mayoral hopefuls Stephanie Terry, a Democrat, and Natalie Rascher, a Republican, didn't return messages from the Courier & Press seeking comment. Winnecke did the same.

The only candidates to respond were Republican Cheryl Musgrave and Libertarian Michael Daugherty.

“It’s important to put a pause on these types of procedures for minors specifically until there is more transparency on the risks and more input from parents,” Musgrave said through a spokeswoman.

According to the legislation, input from parents wouldn’t matter. Gender reassignment surgery and therapy are banned for minors whether the parents support the decision or not.

For Daugherty, that was a major tenet. As a libertarian, he supports a person’s right to make decisions about their body without government interference. But parental consent isn’t the same as a patient’s personal choice, he said.

“I agree with the governor and his statement on the bill, just as I agree minors should not be able to purchase firearms (or) drink before a certain age,” he said. “There’s a maturity level required before they make decisions about their own bodies that could permanently affect their future.”

Once someone turns 18, he said, they should have access to gender-affirming care.

“That’s a right they have for themselves,” he said. “Once they’re of legal age and sound mind, they are free to do what they want with their own bodies.”

What SB 480 does, and how Evansville-area lawmakers voted

One day before signing the bill into law on April 5, Holcomb called SB 480 “clear as mud.”

“There’s some vagueness to it. So, I want to make sure I completely understand it,” he told Indiana Capital Chronicle. “… I wanted to get a full picture of it.”

The law is seven pages long. It bans anyone younger than 18 from receiving any “gender transition procedure.” It does set aside exemptions in certain cases, including some for individuals born intersex, with anatomy that doesn’t fit typical definitions of male or female.

A portion of the law singles out gender transition surgeries, even though representatives from Indiana University Health told lawmakers that minors don’t undergo those in Indiana.

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Banning hormone procedures will have the greatest impact. The law bars any minor from receiving testosterone, estrogen, or progesterone “in an amount greater than would normally be produced endogenously in a healthy individual of that individual's age and sex.” It also bans puberty blockers.

The law ultimately passed the Senate 36-12 and the House 65-30. The only Evansville-area legislators to vote against it were Republican Sen. Veneta Becker and Democratic Rep. Ryan Hatfield.

Sen. Jim Tomes (R-Wadesville) was listed as a co-author.

In a statement on the new law, the ACLU said it would “forcibly deprive some youth of life-saving care that they are already receiving.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit come from all over the state and include three children who harmed themselves before receiving the care they needed to transition, the Capital Chronicle reported.

“It’s been very difficult to see my son unmotivated and losing all that progress,” Maria Rivera, one of the children’s parents, said in a recent online news conference. “(I) see my child losing all of his hope. It’s devastating for us.”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville mayor candidates support, stay silent on Indiana trans law