New South Carolina Bill Would Ban Children from Gender Reassignment Surgery

Representative Cezar Mcknight (D-South Carolina) has received backlash after his proposal of a new bill. The bill titled the “South Carolina Vulnerable Child Compassion protection Act” bans minors from receiving gender-altering surgery or treatments that prevent/delay puberty. Any medical professional who violates the law would be charged with a felony and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

After the bill’s proposal, Mcknight received backlash from both his own party and those further left.

“I would not have ever put this bill forward if I didn’t think the people in my district wouldn’t be receptive, and they are. Pastors, young parents, older parents, they all tell me the same thing: if you want to do this, wait until you’re 18.”

While not explicitly stated, the language of the bill implies a ban on circumcision as well, stating:

…no person shall engage in, counsel, make a referral for, or cause any of the following practices to be performed upon a minor if the practice is performed for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the minor’s perception of the minor’s gender or sex, if that perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex as defined in this chapter:

(1)    prescribing, dispensing, administering, or otherwise supplying puberty-blocking medication to stop or delay normal puberty;

(2)    prescribing, dispensing, administering, or otherwise supplying supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or other androgens to females;

(3)    prescribing, dispensing, administering, or otherwise supplying supraphysiologic doses of estrogen to males;

(4)    performing surgeries that sterilize, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, orchiectomy, and penectomy;

(5)    performing surgeries that artificially construct tissue with the appearance of genitalia that differs from the individual’s sex, including metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty; or

(6)    removing any healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue.

To read more about the damages of circumcision check out this article.

The issue of gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy for adolescents is an extremely nuanced topic. For more information on the issue, Joe Rogan has an excellent podcast episode with Abigail Shrier, author of “The Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters” which you can listen to here.




Gender Reassignment Surgeries Linked to Improved Mental Well-Being in Transgender People

A recent study has shown that after undergoing gender reassignment surgery, transgender people were less likely to experience depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts than before surgery. Their improvement in mental state can still be seen, and oftentimes continues to increase several years post-op. Gender reassignment surgery is generally considered the last step for treatment of gender dysphoria. Before surgery patients take feminizing or masculinizing hormones to adjust external sexual features, but the hormones did not have the same effect on mental health as the surgery did.

Howard Lipin/The San Diego Union-Tribune

Many transsexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals find comfort with their gender identity, role, and expression without surgery,” but for others, surgery is essential and medically necessary to alleviate their gender dysphoria,

Sex-reassignment surgery yields long-term mental health benefits, study finds

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Gender incongruent people within the study were six times more likely than the general population to visit doctors for mood and or anxiety disorders, three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants, and six times as likely to be hospitalized for suicide attempts. These mental health problems diminished and continued to diminish the longer it had been since patients underwent surgery. The likelihood of treatment of an anxiety or mood disorder reduced 8% each year post-op for up to 10 years. Transgender people are still more in need of mental health care compared to the rest of the population, the research team suggests this is partly based on stigma, economic inequality, and victimization.