Surgeries, hormone treatments now banned for young transgender people in Mississippi

With Republican legislators, activists and one of the most notable anti-transgender media personalities looking on, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law that bans gender-affirming care for people under the age of 18.

Downstairs, a small group of transgender allies and activists gathered around a cellphone listening to what the state's leader had to say.

Rob Hill, state director for Human Rights Campaign, has been tracking the bill since the session began at the start of the year.

"My reaction to it initially was sadness because I know how this is going to impact families, trans kids in Mississippi who are already very vulnerable, but that turned as this bill was fast tracked through the House and the Senate and now to the governor's desk for his signature," Hill said shortly before the signing ceremony began. "It's anger now. I'm angry at the governor and lawmakers for making decisions they shouldn't."

Eighteen stories above him, the mood was very different. Local Republican Party officials chatted with the lawmakers who shepherded the bill through the two chambers across the street. They were soon joined by Reeves and Matt Walsh, who hosts a show for the conservative media outlet the Daily Wire.

Under the law, House Bill 1125, gender transition surgeries, hormone therapies and puberty blockers are all now banned for minors.

"There is a dangerous movement that's spreading across America today. It's advancing under the guise of a false ideology, and pseudoscience is being pushed onto our children through radical activists, social media and online influencers, and it's trying to convince our children that they are in the wrong body," Reeves said. "This dangerous movement attempts to convince these children that they're just a surgery away from happiness. It threatens our children's innocence, and it threatens their health."

When answering questions from the media, Reeves regularly turned to Walsh to add his thoughts. Last year, Walsh made a documentary called "What is a Woman?" which questioned the very existence of transgender people and attacked doctors who perform gender-affirming procedures.

Many transgender people have received the medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, with a number of major medical groups pointing to gender affirming care as the only effective treatment. Medical groups endorsing these kinds of procedures include the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association.

With Reeves standing behind him Tuesday, Walsh called medical professionals who support gender affirming procedures for children "child abusing quacks and soulless goblins."

Reeves, who said through this law Mississippi will "follow the science," said rather than undergoing medical procedures, children should be told they are accepted and loved for who they are — meaning the biological sex listed on their birth certificates.

Critics of HB 1125, like Hill, question how politicians, like Reeves, can know more about how to help a child than that child's parents and doctors.

"It's an overreach. It's dictating something that they have no real knowledge about," Hill said.

When asked about that criticism, Reeves said an adult can decide with their doctor whether to have these procedures, but a child should not be allowed to. Once they are adults, Reeves said, they can make a decision about what they really want to be.

"I am highly against 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds getting these types of surgeries, but the libertarian in me kind of says if that's what you want to do to your body, OK. But not to children," Reeves said.

The governor also pointed to what he called "liberal darlings," countries in Scandanavia like Finland, Sweden and Denmark, that prohibit children from accessing certain gender-affirming care.

Walsh said it is impossible for "normal, commonsense, decent Americans" to support allowing children to access these procedures.

"But sadly, many of the people who hold power in this country, who run our institutions do not pass this basic test of human decency. These vultures have lined up to feast on and profit from the confusion of innocent kids, confusion that the same vultures have intentionally fostered in the minds of our youth," Walsh said.

Beneath the heated language surrounding the impact of gender-affirming care is the question of whether these procedures are actually happening in Mississippi. There is no evidence that gender transition surgeries, the procedure Reeves most often references, are being performed on anyone in Mississippi, including minors. Some transgender people between the ages of 16 and 18 do currently use puberty blockers, though this law now makes that illegal.

Reeves said this law is necessary, even if the procedures aren't happening.

"If we want to take the position that, 'Hey, we're just doing this on a preventative basis … because we don't want it to happen in our state,' then that's fine for us to say that, and I'm willing to take this as a victory if that's the case," Reeves said. "What's been ironic to me is that over the last six weeks, the opponents of this legislation started by saying if we pass this bill young children are going to die. Over the last few days, the argument has shifted, and the opponents are saying, 'Well this hasn't been happening anyway so why on Earth would you pass a bill to prevent something that hasn't happened anyway?' The fact is, you can believe one of those two things, but you can't believe both."

Even if the number of people currently receiving gender-affirming care is small, transgender people and activists have said the message this law sends could have a wide impact. At a rally earlier this month, a 16-year-old transgender person said that the bill would pose a real threat to the lives of transgender youth, who already face disproportionally high rates of suicide and depression.

"It has been said this bill is about saving children, but this bill is really about removing the parents' ability to save their own children," Leviathan Myers-Rowell said. "HB 1125 is in the media and is telling society that there is something wrong with people like me and my parents. HB 1125 will be the reason that more of my community and more of my friends die."

Questions remain over whether doctors will be able to prescribe the same drugs often given to transgender people in order to pause the onset of puberty in people who use them to treat other conditions. Reeves said a transgender person would likely be barred from receiving the drugs even if they were prescribed for purposes other than gender-affirming care, and that doctors should know their patients well enough to know when to enforce that ban.

"I'm hopeful that every physician in the state that practices medicine knows their patient and knows what types of medicine they are prescribing and what types of medicine they are not," Reeves said.

Any physician found to be in violation of the new law risks losing their medical license.

Shortly after the law was signed, a group of advocates released a joint statement through the Campaign for Southern Equality.

"Gov. Reeves’ decision to sign this bill is an act of violence. He and the lawmakers who pushed this bill in Mississippi are willfully ignoring the unique needs of transgender young people, interfering with their medical care and sending a stigmatizing, exclusionary message. Advocates for transgender equality in Mississippi and beyond will continue doing everything in our power to care for and protect trans youth in our state," said Mickie Stratos, president of the Spectrum Center in Hattiesburg.

Hill said activists plan to keep fighting for transgender Mississippians' ability to access care, including possible court challenges. He also had a message for the state's transgender youth.

"My message is that I love you, and there are plenty more people who care about you than don't," Hill said.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MS Governor Tate Reeves signs anti-transgender legislation