Theo Welling
Photo from Pride St. Louis' annual parade in 2019.
Legislators in the Missouri Senate approved two bills this morning related to transgender minors in the state. One would prevent Missourians under 18 from accessing gender-affirming health care and the other would prevent transgender student-athletes from playing on teams that do not match the sex on their birth certificate.
Individuals under 18 taking puberty blockers prior to the law's start date of August 28, 2023 would be able to continue taking them.
The votes this morning came after Democrats held a 12-hour long filibuster to try to block the legislation from advancing. Democratic senators took shifts speaking on the Senate floor to prevent the vote, starting yesterday evening and ceasing a little before 6 a.m.
The bills were then voted on about half an hour after the filibuster concluded.
“This bill is to put guardrails around a very difficult situation, one that we honestly as a society, certainly as a legislative body, do not know enough about,” the legislation's sponsor Senator Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston) told St. Louis Public Radio Monday night.
According to the Post-Dispatch, Senator Greg Razer (D-Kansas City) said about these bills during debate that “this isn’t the end.” He believes that Republicans will next try to have parents charged with child abuse if their children are receiving gender-affirming care.
Both bills passed this morning still need to win approval in the Missouri House of Representatives before becoming law.
Yesterday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced he would use current laws targeting "unfair, deceptive, and unconscionable" business practices to further regulate gender-affirming health care available to minors in the state.
Missouri advocacy organization PROMO slammed Bailey's action, issuing a statement that said, in part, "It is clear his office does not respect the professional guidelines of every major medical association in our country, who agrees gender-affirming health care is the standard of care for transgender Missourians, and instead is abusing his political power by asserting his beliefs by stating access to lifesaving health care is part of a ‘woke, leftist agenda.'"
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