© Tyrone Siu/Reuters
The 27-8 vote in favor included all Republicans present and one Democrat voting for the ban. That came after the remaining Democrats tried to walk out so there wouldn't be enough senators to stay in session, but the vote was called too fast.
The bill bars health professionals from performing gender-transition surgeries, prescribing puberty blockers and overseeing hormone treatments for patients under 18.
School principals or vice principals would have to notify parents or guardians if a child wanted to use a name other than their legal one, or a nickname or pronouns that did not match their sex assigned at birth.
The House passed the bill in January, but the Senate made changes so either the House can vote to adopt the Senate version or it will go to a conference committee of three members from each chamber to resolve the differences.
"There are some things in the nature of creation — male and female is one of them — that gets beyond what you believe and I believe," Republican Sen. Richard Cash said on the Senate floor before debate began Thursday. "It's rooted in creation; it's rooted in the creator and those who opposed that are opposing in some sense the nature of creation itself."
The bill also would prevent people from using Medicaid to cover the costs of gender-affirming care.
There were a few amendments passed. One allows mental health counselors to talk about banned treatments — and even suggest a place they are legal. A second lets doctors prescribe puberty blockers for some conditions for which they are prescribed like when a child begins what is called precocious puberty when they are as young as 4.
Comment: A sensible amendment for a condition that has nothing to do with the transgender madness.
Opponents failed to get an amendment that would only ban treatments considered irreversible after supporters of the bill balked at who would get to decide what treatments fit under that provision.
The changes made a bad bill only a little less worse, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said.
"Children are born who they want to be. Parents deal with the children that come to them. Doctors have been trained to deal with children who are having issues like this. Government really has no role in this," Hutto said. "Let the children be who they are."
Comment: From observation, children, at least while they are children, try to become what their parents want. There appears to be a high correlation of 'trans kids' and Cluster B personality-disordered parents.
American College of Pediatrics: Transgenderism of children is child abuse
Via The Associated Press.
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