The state of Wyoming has outlawed “gender-reassignment” procedures for children in an effort to ban the permanent sterilization, castration, and mutilation of minors.
Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed SF0099, also known as the “Children gender change prohibition,” into law on Friday. The law allows exceptions for “procedures or treatments that are performed with the consent of the child’s parent or guardian and are for a child who is born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.”
“I signed SF99 because I support the protections this bill includes for children; however, it is my belief that the government is straying into the personal affairs of families,” Gordon said in a press release. “Our legislature needs to sort out its intentions with regard to parental rights. While it inserts governmental prerogative in some places, it affirms parental rights in others.”
Related — Women’s Rights Activist: Never Use the Language of Trans-Activism — Don’t Give It Any Validation
The new law specifically prohibits any “surgery that sterilizes the child, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty.”
It also covers “sex-change” and puberty-blocking hormones.
The move was commended by Gays Against Groomers, an organization of gay people and other allies who advocate against child transgenderism.
The governor vetoed HB148, also titled “Regulation of abortions,” on Friday. That bill would have placed more restrictions on Wyoming’s abortion clinics.
Gordon’s office said that the initially proposed bill “would have properly regulated surgical abortion clinics in Wyoming,” but amendments to the bill “complicated its purpose, making it vulnerable to legal challenges.”
“With the judge certifying these cases to the Wyoming Supreme Court, the state is closer than ever to a decision on the constitutionality of abortion in Wyoming,” Gordon said. “It is my opinion that HB148, as amended, had the potential to further delay the resolution of this critical issue for the unborn.”
He added that “the potential of starting over on a new course of legal arguments would in my mind be derelict, and would have only sacrificed additional unborn lives in Wyoming.”