A Montana transgender teen’s medical care is being unscrupulously used by far-right Wyoming politicians to try to ban gender-affirming care for teens here.
It’s a classic case of never letting facts get in the way of an opportunity to exploit someone for political gain.
Opinion
Two weeks ago, I examined the proposed “What Is a Woman Act,” an attempt to keep transgender people from being recognized by any other gender than what’s listed on their birth certificate.
Here’s part two, which I didn’t anticipate, a new prime example of Wyoming lawmakers’ relentless attacks on LGBTQ individuals.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ claim that Wyoming is becoming a “sanctuary state” for gender reassignment totally distorts what happened to a Montana teen who identifies as transgender and was removed from his home by child welfare officials.
This troubling case, first accurately reported by Montana Free Press, has fractured a family. Wyoming’s limited role was to offer mental health treatment to the youth, but extremists want the public to believe the state is permanently damaging minors by altering their minds and bodies.
A Montana father and stepmother rejected their child’s identification as a transgender boy, beginning in 2021. In a Facebook video posted last month, the parents charged that their child was “kidnapped” by the state and transferred against their wishes to a Wyoming psychiatric facility.
WyoFile is withholding the teen’s identity because he is a minor. Last August, Montana’s child welfare division and police responded to two confidential callers’ concerns that the youth was depressed and suicidal from bullying at school and lack of acceptance by his parents. The child was taken to the local hospital, where medical staff determined he was suicidal and recommended his transfer to a residential psychiatric facility as soon as a bed in the region became available.
But according to a legal filing, the parents would not agree to the transfer because Wyoming lacks a ban on gender-affirming care. They were worried, documents show, that the child might receive either surgery or medication for transition-related care.
Montana, for its part, passed a law last year banning gender-affirming treatment for minors with gender dysphoria. The parents claim Montana officials tried to sidestep the ban by sending their child to Wyoming, where no ban exists.
However, the Montana law has yet to take effect, because of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Montana and other groups. The case is pending in state district court.
The teen received mental health treatment in Wyoming for his suicidality and after about a month-long stay, he was transferred back to Montana, where he’s been in out-of-home placement. His parents object to the state-directed treatment plan, which is aimed at family reunification.
After the far-right seized the issue to claim Montana’s actions amounted to a “medical kidnapping,” Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte took the unusual step of posting on X (formerly known as Twitter) that his administration had properly followed state policy and laws.
Unfortunately, the Wyoming GOP and the Freedom Caucus have continued to spread misinformation about what happened, to the detriment of the family’s well-being, in service to far-right efforts to pass anti-trans laws.
Like many red states, Wyoming lawmakers are targeting transgender youth. In 2022, the Legislature considered a bill to ban trans females from high school and college sports competitions. It passed the Senate but died in the House when it was not introduced.
Last year, a similar bill limiting the restriction to middle and high school trans female athletes passed both houses. Gov. Mark Gordon let the measure become law without his signature.
One of the major controversies of the 2023 legislative session was “Chloe’s Law,” a bill to prohibit gender transitioning for children like hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgeries. The bill would have punished physicians and other medical providers by revoking or suspending their licenses.
The bill passed the Senate 23-5, but the House Appropriations Committee killed the proposal by voting 5-2 to not advance it.
A similar bill sponsored this year by Rep. Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander) and other traditional Republicans in the Wyoming Caucus, House Bill 63 – Sex and gender changed for children-prohibited, is opposed by the Freedom Caucus because it doesn’t ban hormone replacement therapy. Its members called the therapy “the first step in permanently altering the body and mind of those suffering from gender dysphoria.”
The Freedom Caucus alleged the Montana youth was “forcibly transported” to Wyoming for gender transition treatment, which isn’t true. The teenager was sent to Wyoming based on a suicidality assessment and the fact that a bed was available at a facility here.
“Uniparty insiders blocked two measures that would have made this kind of chemical abuse illegal last year,” the caucus claimed in a statement. “Now, Wyoming appears to have become a de facto gender reassignment sanctuary state.”
Meanwhile, the Wyoming Republican Party falsely stated Montana authorities used the new law — which never went into effect — to find “loopholes and cross-state legal discrepancies” as part of the alleged scheme.
The GOP organizations said they were “saddened,” “sickened” and “alarmed” by what transpired. That’s how the public should feel about these desperate lies for the sake of political opportunism.
The Freedom Caucus has tried to make it seem as if the Legislature’s rejection of reactionary bills like Chloe’s Law will lead to Wyoming becoming the capital of transgender surgeries.
In reality, there is no evidence that any transgender surgery has ever been performed in the state. And remember, the teen was here for only a month. Transition care is provided on a much longer timeline.
The Freedom Caucus may successfully amend HB 63 to ban hormone replacement therapy and other gender transition procedures, so the 26 caucus members might support the bill. But it will still need to be approved by two-thirds in the house of origin to even be introduced, which is a high hurdle.
Even if HB 63 is defeated, by focusing on such hot-button social issues the caucus will fulfill the National Republican Party’s main objective: stirring up its radical base.
According to UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, state legislatures considered nearly 500 bills to restrict LGBTQ rights last year. More than half specifically targeted transgender youth.
A total of 105,200 transgender youth ages 13-17 live in the 22 states that have banned gender-affirming health care. Montana is one of four states where courts have held the bans likely violate federal or state constitutions. The vast majority of these laws were passed in 2023, and more are on the horizon.
A new American Academy of Pediatrics report asserts restricting trans youth’s access to gender-affirming care “amounts to state-sanctioned medical neglect and emotional abuse.”
Hard-core conservatives insist bills like Chloe’s Law and HB 63 are intended to protect trans minors. But the APA contends the bans increase suicidal ideation and depression that “imperils their safety.” Attacks on gender-affirming care, pediatricians concluded, have led to spikes in discriminatory rhetoric that negatively impacts the mental health of LGBTQ youth.
Unfortunately, the Wyoming GOP and the Freedom Caucus have continued to spread misinformation about what happened, to the detriment of the family’s well-being, in service to far-right efforts to pass anti-trans laws.
Unlike the Montana family whose trans child was transferred to Wyoming for mental health treatment, some parents support their children’s gender identity.
NBC News reported that Levi Hormuth, 16, struggled with gender identity throughout his childhood, when he formerly identified as her. Hormuth experienced anxiety, depression and had started to harm himself. But that changed when he received care at Washington University’s Transgender Center in St. Louis.
Then Missouri banned his testosterone treatments. “I don’t feel protected,” Hormuth said he wanted to tell lawmakers. “We are children who know what is wrong with our bodies. It’s our bodies, not yours. Leave us alone, and let us be happy.”
That’s what should happen, if lawmakers are honestly interested in the well-being of trans children whose lack of treatment options because of state bans leaves them struggling with mental health issues. But it doesn’t fit the message of far-right leaders of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and the state Republican Party, who will lie about the potentially devastating impact of their decisions on transgender teens and their families to pass ill-conceived, harmful legislation.
Correction: During the budget session, a bill must receive a two-thirds vote to be introduced in the house where the bill originates. The column incorrectly stated that the two-thirds rule applies in both chambers. —Ed.
It is called “Chloe’s Law” for a reason. Maybe look into Chloe’s experience. Then think maybe it could be something a child waits to do until they are older and have some maturity to think about, like an adult. I know of at least three young men who have made this choice. I hate to see such a huge change in their lives but at least they are grown adults and making that decision not children or teens. Any of those treatments are non reversible. That’s big. We worry about a kid drinking alcohol or smoking or even driving at am older age limit but we are willing to let them do such a life altering process to their bodies at younger ages than we allow them to drink or smoke or drive. Really? If you are an adult with some life experience and you make this choice then okay, I guess but what right do we have to do this to a child. Listen to Chloe and hear her experience. Think about both sides of this and just not one that you think is the only choice.
How lovely for the House Freedom Caucus to be totally unrestrained by facts, truth or human kindness. The only time I have ever wanted to contemplate changing my birth classification as a woman is when I read words from Representative Jeanette Ward from Casper. This former Illinois resident who was voted off that island is our latest spokesperson of the Wyoming Way. If not spewing the right to ignore the CDC or World Health Organization so we can infect our fellow citizens, she gives the advice to struggling new mothers without health care to man up and now she goes on a crusade against the trans community. How can I be the same birth sex as this woman when to me the great strength of women is collaboration and cooperation for the greater good of our society. No weakness allowed unless expedient for the caucus. No entitlements unless it goes to protect the illusion of the cowboy from 100 years ago. No big government unless it is them telling us what to do. All this while waving the Christian cross. Exhausting
Why does the freedom caucus seem to want to interfere in everybody’s life? They seem to want to take away our freedoms. They want to tell us how to live and what to do. Supposedly they are for less government, so why are they passing all these bills to control things.
I’m not sure who made up story that this child was sent to Wyoming so they could have sex change surgery. From what I can tell the only reason the child was sent to Wyoming was because they needed mental health treatment. I hope the individual gets it.
I am hoping the teen has no access to TV, newspapers, or the Internet, because I’m sure it would mess with the individual even more.
The freedom caucus wackos are for freedom the way they want it. I hope many people realize this in the next election and get these wackos out of office. They are going to ruin our state.
They don’t want to put money in mental health, which many people need. Very likely including transgender individuals that are confused about their own bodies.
They don’t want to put money Into Medicaid expansion that would benefit a lot of people.
I pay taxes into the federal government and they provide services. Then these so-called freedom caucusers turn the money down because of some stupid reason or another. Oh I remember now it’s because a Democrat put it in effect.
People would benefit from greater health benefits. All people would benefit, not just the people that are receiving it.
Everybody complains about the high cost of healthcare, but when doctors, hospitals, and mental health facilities, have to write off millions of dollars in revenues, they then charge those of us that can afford it or have insurance pay more for services.
I can’t believe the lies that the freedom caucus perpetrates. It’s right out of the big orange blob Trump’s playbook. Wake up people, they are destroying Wyoming, they are destroying the country.
Stop looking at all the right wing propaganda, the extreme right wing propaganda. I realize the left-wing and the extreme left-wing put out propaganda, but you need to balance it. Stop following the Internet blindly, stop following newscast blindly, do some real good research.
Thanks and have a good day
John Abas
PS. Truth Social is not good research.
When it comes to Freedom Caucus members, the axiom “you can’t fix stupid” seems to fit perfectly. The sad part is that by perpetuating their lies and conspiracies to people prone to falling for it, they build their base. Classic political propaganda.
A somewhat strident indictment of a political party based upon the medical knowledge of a journalist. Of about 2.5% to 8% children and adolescents that identify as transgender or gender diverse, less than 20% of pre-pubertal children continue into adulthood suggesting that gender identity can be transient during childhood and adolescence. Between ages 10 and 13 (puberty onset) is the age when gender identity usually consolidates with few changes occurring later. Of those receiving gender confirming therapy less than 3.5% discontinue it. Of the total U.S. population, usually among the younger, 0.4% – 0.6% identify as transgender. Furthermore, “sexual (gender) identity”, such as transgender, is not necessarily the same as “sexual orientation”, such as LGBTQ. Even though legislators as members of a political party pass laws, medical concerns must have input from other than politicians or journalists.
First of all, it is human nature to day dream about being something they aren’t at any particular time. If these same kids decided they were race car drivers would anyone decide that was what they were and turn them loose in one? Changing a child’s body surgically to fulfill a fantasy at a given time is not really smart.
All sides are using this Trans issue for political leverage. Those for it. Those against it. The LBGQT Is most active trying to gain both money and political leverage. The Trans group is has a severe mental health issue and few if any turn out to be healthy stable group that contributes to society.
Posting bigoted, hateful, ignorant, political drivel doesn’t seem to be contributing much to society.
I’d be curious to understand your grading system for how you determine “contributions” to society.
For a state that claims to value individual freedom, lawmakers and others are sure looking in people’s pants and doctors’ offices.
Sadly, this is another tragic example of legal and political interference and use of the same to intrude on personal crises that should be private, and should remain so. In this case, those Montana parents abdicated their responsibility to their child, and should be called to task by Family Services, and law enforcement if necessary. It’s sickening that they are parading their own political, and perhaps “religious” beliefs to make it seem as if they’re doing the right thing. Bottom line: THEY turned out their minor child, not any system – governmental, legal, political, or otherwise.
‘All competent persons’ has thus far been redefined by this legislature to exclude all women of child bearing age, and transgender persons under 18.
The Freedom Caucus pretends to be fighting to protect innocent life, yet every bill they propose harms people of this state in service of their quest for power. They need to be recognized as the danger to Wyoming citizens that they truly are.
Yes they are PRO BIRTH but not pro life