Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law a bill that criminalizes medical treatments for transgender children and another that requires children use the bathroom matching their sex at birth at school.
Becky Gerritson of Alabama Eagle Forum tells AFN the state is determined to stop victimization of children by stopping, for example, the cross-sex hormones that are given to young children to change their appearance.
“They are the exact same drugs that they give to pedophiles in jail to chemically castrate them,” she says of the potent drugs. “This is serious business. This is not a joke and this bill is going to protect young children's lives.”
Such children may be suffering from a mental disorder now known as gender dysphoria by the American Psychological Association. In an attempt to help them, APA diagnosed transgender people with gender identity disorder but the organization bowed to pressure in 2015 to change the medical term to a more watered-down description that would not upset transgender people.
Regardless of the APA's now-changed stance, Gerritson likens it to people who suffer from anorexia.
“You would not give them liposuction, or recommend liposuction or gastric bypass,” she points out, "or continue to affirm them in the delusion that they're living in.”
The new Alabama law prevents the use of hormone blockers and mutilation surgery until age 19.
