LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) – Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday made the state the first to ban gender-confirmatory treatments and surgery for transgender youth, approving the ban on the governor’s objections.
Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to overturn GOP Governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the measure, which prohibits doctors from providing gender-confirmatory hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under the age of 18 or referring them to other providers for treatment.
Opponents of the measure have vowed to sue to block the ban before it goes into effect this summer.
Hutchinson vetoed the bill following requests from pediatricians, social workers and parents of transgender youth who said the measure would harm a community that was already at risk for depression and suicide.
The ban was opposed by several medical and child welfare groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The sponsor of the measure referred to the procedures as experimentation and compared the restriction to other limits that the state puts on minors.
“They have to be 18 years old before they make those decisions,” Republican Rep. Robin Lundstrum said.
Hutchinson said the measure went too far to interfere with parents and doctors and noted it will cut off care for transgender youth who are already receiving treatment. He said he would have signed the bill if he had focused only on gender confirmation surgery, which is not currently performed on minors in the state.
The law will take effect in late July at the earliest. The American Civil Liberties Union said it planned to challenge the measure sooner.
“This is a sad day for Arkansas, but this struggle is not over, and we are on the long road,” Holly Dickson, executive director of ACLU Arkansas, said in a statement.
The replacement, which only needed a simple majority, passed easily in both houses, with the House voting 72-25 in favor and the Senate 25-8.
The ban was enacted during a year in which laws targeting transgender people have advanced easily in Arkansas and other states. Hutchinson recently signed legislation banning transgender women and girls from competing in teams consistent with their gender identity, a ban that has also been enacted in Tennessee and Mississippi this year.
Hutchinson also recently signed legislation that allows doctors to refuse to treat someone because of moral or religious objections..
The foundation, founded Tuesday by the family of the Bentonville-based Walmart founder, was concerned about recent measures targeting LGBTQ people.
“This trend is detrimental and sends the wrong message to those who are willing to invest or visit our state,” Tom Walton told the Walton Family Foundation in a statement released before the general vote.
A lawmaker opposed to the measure compared it to the anti-integration laws of the Arkansas legislature passed in 1958 in opposition to the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School the previous year.
“What I see, this bill, is the most powerful one that is once again intimidating the most vulnerable people in our state,” Democratic Sen. Clarke Tucker said before the vote.