Mississippi governor Tate Reeves (R.) signed a bill Tuesday that prohibits sex change procedures for minors, making his state the seventh to restrict such practices.
The Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures Act, which the Republican-led Senate passed last month along party lines, protects children from receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex change surgeries as treatment for gender dysphoria.
"There is a dangerous movement spreading across America today," Reeves said at a news conference Tuesday. "It’s advancing under the guise of a false ideology, and pseudo science 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."
Lawmakers across the country are raising concerns about these so-called transgender treatments for minors. In the last two years, six states—Utah, South Dakota, Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, and Arizona—have banned these treatments, and at least 25 other states are considering similar legislation. The Tennessee Congress is right behind Mississippi, having sent legislation to Governor Bill Lee's (R.) desk last week, which Lee has promised to sign into law.
"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," Reeves said.
One young woman who received these sex change procedures as a child is suing the doctors who encouraged her transition for medical negligence. Chloe Cole, who has since detransitioned, announced her lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals last Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign are among the left-wing advocates staunchly opposed to these states' measures.