Wyoming Senate Passes Bill Banning Gender Changes For Minors

The Wyoming Senate has passed a bill that would ban gender transitioning and reassignment procedures for anyone under the age of 18 in Wyoming.

Senate File 99, known as "Chloe's Law" now goes on to the Wyoming House of Representatives. It's sponsored by Sen. Anthony Bouchard [R-Laramie County]. Co-sponsors include:

Sens. Biteman, Boner, Brennan, Dockstader, French, Hicks, Hutchings, Ide, Kinskey, Kolb, Laursen, D, McKeown, Salazar and Steinmetz and Representative(s) Andrew, Davis, Heiner, Hornok, Jennings, Knapp, Locke, Neiman, Niemiec, Ottman, Pendergraft, Penn, Rodriguez-Williams, Slagle, Strock, Styvar, Trujillo and Winter.

The bill specifically bans gender reassignment surgery or the use of drugs to change someone's sex if the person is under 18 years old. It does include medical exemptions for genetic disorders and some other medical conditions.

In floor debate on the bill, Sen. Lynn Hutchings [R-Laramie County], a co-sponsor of the bill, spoke about Chloe's( for whom the bill is named) testimony about having undergone treatments when she was 13 to become a boy.

Hutchings says Chloe will have to live with the after-effects for the rest of her life. "She said she'll forever have the deep voice because she decided not to transition fully. She'll have the protruding Adam's apple. She has breasts that she had removed, I think she said at the age of 15, that she has to bandage every single day because they leak."

Sen Chris Rothfuss [D-Albany County] spoke against the measure. "At the end of the day, this legislation provides an opportunity for the state to insert itself between parents and children in consultation with the health care providers of those children. This seems very antithetical, candidly, to what this chamber and this legislature have pushed for in recent years."

Here is how the vote on Senate File 99 broke down:

Ayes: Baldwin, Barlow, Biteman, Boner, Bouchard, Brennan, Cooper, Dockstader, Ellis, French, Furphy, Hicks, Ide, Hutchings, Jones, Kinskey, Kolb, Laursen, McKeown, Nethercott, Pappas, Salazar, Schuler, Scott, Steinmetz, President Driskill
Nays: Anderson, Case, Gierau, Landen, Rothfuss