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Alabama anti-Trans Bill Dies when Legislatures Adjourns

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Photo by Jake Crandall AP
Photo by Jake Crandall AP

A bill to ban gender affirming medical treatment for Transgender minors died in the Alabama state legislature on May 17, when the lawmakers adjourned before taking it up.

The measure had been passed by the Alabama Senate, but it came to the floor of the state House in last place on a very long agenda, and lawmakers bailed before taking it up. According to Associated Press, the House adjourned around midnight on May 17, the last hour of the last scheduled day of their session.

The bill would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming medical treatments for Transgender minors, and would have made the parents or guardians of minors who underwent gender-affirming treatments liable to be prosecuted for child abuse.

The demise of the bill was a victory for LGBTQ advocacy groups and Trans youth and their parents, who held rallies outside the Alabama statehouse to oppose the bill.

"This important victory is the result of trans people and their families mobilizing to defend this life-saving medical care in Alabama and around the country," said Chase Strangio, deputy director for Trans justice at the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Supporters of the bill alleged that they were trying to protect children from decisions that should wait until adulthood.

"Children aren't mature enough to make these decisions on surgeries and drugs," Republican Sen. Shay Shelnutt, the sponsor of the bill, said earlier in the legislative session.

He added that he had been unaware such treatments were happening in Alabama when he first introduced the bill last year.

Arkansas was the first state to enact such a measure earlier this year.

Alabama lawmakers did approve another bill banning Transgender girls from playing on gender- appropriate school sports teams. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed that bill into law last month.