Relating to prohibited activities regarding gender transition procedures relative to minors, and including effective date and applicability provisions

This bill relates to prohibitions regarding gender transition procedure-related activities relating to minors. The bill provides definitions used in the bill including “gender”, “health care professional”, “minor”, and “sex”. The bill prohibits, with some exceptions, a health care professional from knowingly engaging in or causing specified practices to be performed on 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 appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex. These prohibited practices include prescribing or administering gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues or other synthetic drugs used to stop luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone secretion, synthetic antiandrogen drugs used to block the androgen receptor, or any drug to suppress or delay normal puberty; prescribing or administering testosterone, estrogen, or progesterone to a minor in an amount greater than would normally be produced endogenously in a healthy individual of that individual’s age and sex; performing surgeries that sterilize, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, orchiectomy, and penectomy; performing surgeries that artificially construct tissue with the appearance of genitalia that differs from the individual’s sex, including metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty; and removing any healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue. The bill also prohibits a health care professional from knowingly engaging in conduct that aids or abets the specified prohibited practices. However, this prohibition is not to be construed to impose liability on any speech protected by federal or state law. The bill specifies services to which the prohibitions of the bill do not apply including: services provided to a minor born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development, including a minor with external biological sex characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous, such as a minor born with XX chromosomes with virilization, XY chromosomes with undervirilization, or having both ovarian and testicular tissue; services provided to a minor who has otherwise been diagnosed with a disorder of sexual development by a physician, when the physician has determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the minor does not have a normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action for a biological male or biological female; the treatment of any infection, injury, disease, or disorder that has been caused or exacerbated by the performance of gender transition procedures, whether or not the procedures were performed in accordance with state and federal law; any procedure undertaken because a minor suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that is certified by a physician and that would place the minor in imminent danger of death or impairment of a major bodily function unless surgery is performed. A violation of the prohibitions under the bill by a health care professional is considered unprofessional conduct and subject to licensee discipline by the appropriate licensing board or entity. The bill provides that a person may assert an actual or threatened violation of the bill as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding and may obtain compensatory damages, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or any other appropriate relief. An action for a violation of the bill must be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues. However, a minor may bring an action during the minor’s minority through a parent or legal guardian, and may bring an action in the minor’s own name upon reaching majority and for years after reaching majority. An action may be commenced, and relief may be granted, in a judicial proceeding without regard to whether the person has sought or exhausted available administrative remedies. A prevailing party may recover reasonable attorney fees in an action brought under the bill. The attorney general may bring an action to enforce the bill. The bill is not to be construed to deny, impair, or otherwise affect any right or authority of the attorney general, the state, or any agency, officer, or employee of the state to institute or intervene in any proceeding. Compliance with, or enforcement or implementation of, the bill shall not constitute a violation of Code chapter 216 (civil rights commission). The bill takes effect upon enactment. The provisions of the bill prohibiting certain practices by a health care professional performed on 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 appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex, are applicable 180 days after the effective date of the bill.