Bill banning hormones for transgender youth advances to Senate floor fight

COLUMBIA — A bill banning puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for transgender youth advanced Thursday after senators re-inserted a parental notification requirement.

A 10-6 vote by the Senate Medical Affairs Committee, along party lines, sent the amended bill to the Senate floor.

Senators made few changes to the legislation pushed swiftly through the House in mid-January.

Medical professionals would still face the possibility of losing their medical license for prescribing puberty-blocking medications and so-called “cross-sex” hormones to minors younger than 18.

Supporters say they’re protecting children from potentially harmful effects of a decision made in their youth. Opponents say the bill would increase already high rates of mental health issues among transgender youth.

But there is one key difference between the chambers’ versions so far.

SC House approves bill banning hormones and surgery for transgender youth

Most of Thursday’s debate involved mandating school administrators to notify parents if their child asks a teacher or other school employee to be called a different name or use different pronouns.

On the House side, that provision was removed during the committee process. An attempt by the uber-conservative Freedom Caucus to add it back in during that chamber’s floor fight was rejected after House Majority Leader Davey Hiott took the podium. Married to a teacher, the Pickens Republican lambasted the idea he said would add yet more unnecessary, unwanted burdens on teachers who just want to teach.

Sen. Deon Tedder, D-Charleston, made much the same argument.

While the state struggles to fully staff its schools, this adds another burden for teachers who are already overworked, he said.

“It’s already tough enough to simply teach a class of students, and now they have to be tasked with notifying parents and telling them personal issues,” Tedder said.

Republican Sen. Sandy Senn joined Democrats in voicing concerns about the parental reporting provision.

Telling parents who may not support their child identifying as a different gender could, in some cases, result in the parent abusing or neglecting their child, the Charleston Republican said.

“Those who try to hide it from their parents probably have good reason for that,” said Senn, who ultimately voted to advance the bill despite those concerns.

Sen. Richard Cash, a father of eight, countered that parents should know right away if their child is identifying as another gender, so they can handle that at home.

“Whatever your response, I’d think that any parent, on either side of the issue, would want to know that their child is identifying as something other than their biological sex,” said the Anderson County Republican.

Both versions ban teachers and administrators from encouraging or coercing students to lie to their parents about their gender identity. However, as House and Senate Democrats have pointed out, the bill provides no way to enforce that.