LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) – On Tuesday, Arkansas lawmakers made the state the first to ban gender-confirming treatments and surgeries for trans youth, enacting a ban against the governor’s objections.
Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to overrule GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure, which prohibits doctors from providing hormonal treatment for sex confirmation, puberty blockers or surgery to minors under 18, or refer them to other providers for treatment.
Opponents of the measure have promised to file a lawsuit to block the ban before it goes into effect this summer.
Hutchinson vetoed the bill after appeals from pediatricians, social workers and parents of trans youth who said the move would harm a community that was already at risk of depression and suicide.
The ban was challenged by several medical and child welfare groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The sponsor of the measure referred to the procedures as experimentation and compared the restriction to other limits that the state imposes on minors.
“They need to be 18 before they can make those decisions,” said Republican Representative Robin Lundstrum.
Hutchinson said the move had gone too far to interfere with parents and doctors, and noted that it would cut care for young transsexuals who are already receiving treatment. He said he would have signed the bill if he had focused only on gender-confirming surgery, which is currently not performed on minors in the state.
The law will go into effect at the end of July, at the very least. The American Civil Liberties Union said it planned to challenge the measure before that.
“This is a sad day for Arkansas, but this fight is not over – and we have been in it for a long time,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the Arkansas ACLU, in a statement.
The annulment, which needed only a simple majority, was easily approved in both chambers, with a vote of the House by 72-25 in favor and the Senate by 25-8.
The ban was enacted during a year in which bills targeting transgender people advanced easily in Arkansas and other states. Hutchinson recently signed legislation prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in teams consistent with their gender identity., a ban that was also enacted in Tennessee and Mississippi this year.
Hutchinson also recently signed legislation that allows doctors to refuse to treat someone because of moral or religious objections..
The foundation established on Tuesday by the family of the founder of Walmart, based in Bentonville, raised concerns about recent measures targeting LGBTQ people.
“This trend is damaging and sends the wrong message to those who wish to invest or visit our state,” said Tom Walton, of the Walton Family Foundation, in a statement released before the annulment vote.
A lawmaker who opposed the measure compared it to the anti-integration bills that the Arkansas Legislature passed in 1958 in opposition to the previous year’s desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.
“What I see, this bill, is the most powerful again, intimidating the most vulnerable people in our state,” said Democratic Senator Clarke Tucker before the vote.