Arkansas is the first U.S. state to forbids treatment and surgery for its underage transgender residents. The governor of Arkansas had used his veto to stop the controversial law, but a Republican majority in the state parliament has now rejected that veto.
The majority needed to reject the veto was easily achieved. In the House, 72 MPs voted in favour and 25 against, in the Senate there were 25 to 8, and the law will enter into force at the earliest end of July. The civil rights movement American Civil Liberties Union has already said that it intends to fight the measure before that time.
Under
the law, doctors are not allowed to operate or treat transgender young people under 18 years of age with, for example, hormones and puberty inhibitors. Governor Asa Hutchinson called the law “too broad and extreme”. He described the proposal as a “product of the Cultural War in the US” and advocated greater tolerance.
According to Hutchinson, the law would create a “new standard” when it comes to interference in the authority of doctors and parents “dealing with one of the most complex and sensitive issues of young people”.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest organization that advocates lhbti rights in America, over 100 bills have been submitted in the US aimed at the transgender community. Similar legislation on treatment bans as in Arkansas are envisaged in at least twenty states.