Victories and Challenges in Stopping Transgender Surgeries on Minors

 Victories and Challenges in Stopping Transgender Surgeries on Minors

Gaining Victories in Montana, Overshadowed by Stunning Setback in “Deeply Conservative” Utah

In states across the country, more legislatures are taking a firm stance against the transgender agenda. For years, MassResistance warned the public that the LGBT agenda, which started with normalizing homosexuality, would not stop with private behaviors between two consenting adults. The redefinition, and thus destruction of marriage, has given way to an all-out assault on sex itself. Today, transgender activists around the country—around the world—are demanding the right to erase sex, to allow biological men to compete against women in women’s sports and use women’s restrooms and fitting rooms.

MassResistance assisted with the passage of H 509 in the state of Idaho last year, the first state to ban biological males from competing against women in women’s sports.

In two more states, MassResistance has been assisting lawmakers to pass legislation further curtailing the spread of this destructive agenda

Utah

State Rep. Rex Shipp (R- Cedar City) introduced HB 92, legislation which ban all gender mutilation procedures on children. The staffers in the Utah State Legislature were very helpful, working closely with MassResistance and our lead activists.

For the first few weeks of the legislative session, the Utah House Leadership kept the bill in the House Rules Committee. Such tactics are enacted in order to delay the movement and success of a bill which certain interests don’t want to deal with.

Finally, however, the bill was released to the House Health and Human Services Committee. The chairman of the committee, Rep. Nelson Merrill (R-Grantsville) indicated head of the hearing that he supported the bill. Furthermore, Rep. Shipp provided for a number of witnesses, including endocrinologist Quentin Van Meter and pro-family psychologist Dr. Miriam Grossman. Former transgender also testified in favor of the legislation.

In contrast, the forces opposing HB 92 included Equality Utah, the LGBT organization well-funded with corporate money. Academics from Brigham Young University also testified in opposition to the legislation. They relied on the same emotional arguments as well as arguments from authority.

The hearing took a turn for the worse, however, when one of the members of the Committee introduced a substitute motion to table the bill and return it to the Rules Committee. What was going on? Rep. Robert Spendlove suggested that there was more language in the bill than had been presented at its first introduce in the Rules Committee. Other committee members pressed the sponsor of the bill on whether the government had any business stepping into a decision that involved a parent and his or her children. “Do you support forced vaccinations?” one committee member asked.

Of course, these arguments were complete non sequiturs, but rather prove that the LGBT lobby in Utah is far more powerful that people realize. Utah is a conservative state, governed by a GOP trifect (both houses run by GOP majorities and a Republican Governor) for more than three decades.

And yet, the current governor, Spencer Cox, is actively and openly pro-LGBT. He even called a press conference a few days prior to signal his opposition to HB 302, a bill which would ban biological boys form competing against girls.

Big money and strong organization  outmuscled our efforts in the committee hearing that day. The Utah MassResistance chapter leader, Robert Gneiting, also reported that the LGBT activists took up all the seats in the hearing early on. On top of that, the committee hearing was cut drastically short, and a number of proponents who were prepared to testify were cut. Even a video testimony, prepared by Rep. Shipp and his intern Austin Johnson, did not broadcast properly and had to be scrapped. Robert Gneiting reported to us after the committee meeting that it seemed as though there were some very bad elements at work in the meeting that day to frustrate every effort to pass HB 92 to a floor vote.

Is HB 92 dead? Not yet. The bill remains in the House Rules Committee for now, but the sponsor intends to bring the bill forward during a House Interim Committee during the summer months, and then will bring the forward the bill next year.

The biggest lessons that came out of the Utah committee hearing for MassResistance activists:

1.       The LGBT lobby in Utah is very organized, and they have even gained the ear and the support of key leaders in the Utah Republican Party, and the Republican leadership in the state house.

2.       LGBT activists prepared a wide array of testimonies, and they even relied on supposedly conservative arguments—like keeping the government out of families’ private affairs—in order to sway conservative votes on the committee to send the bill back to Rules Committee.

3.       Pro-family testimonials relied on facts, while LGBT opponents relied on emotion and personal testimonies more directly.

While the outcome of the hearing was not to our liking, MassResistance activists gained valuable insight on the more effective ways to make key arguments in favor of this legislation and others like it. Our activists are still contacting key lawmakers in the state senator to ensure passage of HB 302, and our chapter is growing weekly as more people want to step up and stop the rapid spread of the LGBT agenda in the state of Utah.

Dr. Miriam Grossman shared other details about the hearing. She was originally slated to speak for six minutes, but then she was cut off to four minutes. She pointed out that one of the members of the committee asked about the irreversibility of puberty blockers. Dr. Grossman was more than prepared to speak on this issue.  They ignored her for the rest of the meeting, and she logged off in disgust.

She then added that the gender clinic director gave a number of false statements.

Montana

In a previous post, we reported to you how Montana MassResistance activists were working with law makers to pass two key bills:

1.       HB 112, which would ban biological males from competing against women in women’s sports.

2.       HB 113, which would ban sex reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers on children.

HB 112 passed out of the Montana State House with little opposition. HB 113, however, faced unprecedented challenges. Out of 100 members, only 53 voted for the bill on Second Reading. On Third Reading, the bill FAILED 49-51.

It was really shocking! Why would any lawmaker vote against legislation to protect children from the irreversible damage caused by gender mutilation procedures and surgeries? Also, keep in mind that the “pro-family” Republican Party holds a supermajority in both chambers. Very quickly, we found out that LGBT activists in large numbers overwhelmed members of the legislature, both in committee and just before the floor vote. Also, major business interests, working through the Montana Chamber of Commerce, pressured a number of key lawmakers to switch their votes at the last minute.

Our activists encouraged the key lawmakers pushing for this common-sense legislation not to give up. Rep. Fuller filed a motion to reconsider HB 113. Sadly, that motion also failed, and by a wider margin: 46-53.

Montana MassResistance activists continued to show all the support that they could for this effort. Thankfully, brave lawmakers with tenacity like Rep. Fuller refused to call it quits. Working with another legislator who had a draft for legislation which could cover subjects relating to health issues, Fuller introduced a revised version of the initial bill, which was labeled HB 427. Because of the Montana legislature’s rules of procedure, a new bill has to be considerably different, or it will get struck down as redundant. The bill passed its first review in the House Rules Committee, 12-7.

With Fuller’s new bill, HB 427, the legislation only bans the transgender surgeries. There is no focus on puberty blockers or hormones. This legislation is not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.

Judiciary Committee Hearing, February 22, 2021

Rep. Fuller delivered his full remarks in favor of the legislation. He indicated his interest in protecting children, and he pointed out that the government has a right and responsibility to step into these matters.

Four people spoke in favor of the legislation, including the head of the Montana Family Foundation, a local pastor, a private citizen, and Arthur Schaper, the Organization Director for MassResistance. Our presence at the meeting was reported by one of the statewide media organizations, too!

When HB 427 came before the House Judiciary Committee, the strain on the LGBTQ advocates in the room became apparent, particularly after testimony from bill proponents. Of the four people who spoke in favor of the proposal, three made derogatory remarks about transgender and nonbinary people, citing personally held religious or social beliefs. One of them was part of the national anti-LGBTQ group MassResistance, which has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Learning key talking points and insights from the Utah House Health and Human Services Committee the previous week, Arthur commented that parental rights are not absolute. Governments have a responsibility to protect the natural rights of all, including children. Arthur’s testimony also foreshadowed the remarks that LGBT activists often make, and he refuted many of them before the LGBT activists themselves could testify in opposition to HB 427.

Those arguments proved far more effective.

The bill passed out of committee, 11-8, but what was remarkable about the hearing was that thirty people spoke against the bill, in person and online. Medical professionals, left-wing activist groups representing so-called “Indigenous Rights”, along with representatives from the ACLU and other young activists showed up to speak out against the bill.

This lopsided example of advocacy shows the power of big money behind these left-wing causes, even in the most conservative of states. There are plenty of activists and advocates for the LGBT agenda, and they are prepared to speak out at every possible hearing. If conservatives across the country, even in blue states, had similar tenacity, this destructive agenda would not have spread as far as it has already!

Following the hearing in Judiciary, the legislation was assigned a Second Reading floor vote on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. The bill passed, by a strong margin, too!

 

Because the legislation did not contain anything connected with blocking puberty blockers, the House leadership had no problems with the bill.

The bill passed on Third Reading with a 60-40 vote and is now headed to the Montana State Senate, where the Republican caucus is more conservative, and they intend to support the bill with less opposition.