After three hours of tearful testimony this week, a bill that would’ve outlawed transgender healthcare for minors in Idaho is effectively dead for the session.
House Judiciary and Rules Committee Chairman Greg Chaney (R-Caldwell) sent a letter to the bill’s sponsor Wednesday, saying he would not hold a vote on the proposal.
That’s not because he doesn’t agree with it.
In the five-page letter to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Christy Zito (R-Hammett), Chaney called the idea of being transgender a “fleeting social fad and a pall on the history of medicine and psychiatry.”
You can read Rep. Greg Chaney's entire letter here.
He says he’s angry at doctors and counselors who embrace it, rather than parents who are trying to do what they think is in the best interest of their children.
Another point of contention for him is that the bill would’ve edited Idaho’s ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) to include these new restrictions on hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy (R-Genesee), who helped usher the FGM law through the legislature last year, said she felt her issue was being “hijacked.”
Chaney said the sponsor should rewrite the bill next year. Instead, he says a standalone law should be created to avoid a potential lawsuit striking down that entire part of code – and the female genital mutilation law with it.
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