“Are you really trying to protect children? Or are you trying to demonize children?”
Democratic Indiana State Senator Greg Taylor pleaded to his colleagues at the statehouse to vote against SB 480. The bill is set to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths in Indiana. Met with both opposition and support from Hoosiers, the bill has been the subject of much debate between legislators, parents, and transgender people and allies.
The bill includes a ban on drug therapies like puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy. It also includes a ban on surgical procedures, even though Indiana physicians already don’t perform procedures on minors.
Alisha Hunter is the mother of a transgender son. He came out to her in 2019 at 12-years-old via email one day before getting on the school bus. His new name and pronouns were in the email, along with a plea to his parents that they still love and support him. Of course, Hunter explained, there was no question that she and her husband would support their child.
Hunter was among dozens of allies giving testimony to explain how detrimental a bill like SB 480 would be to children like hers. She worries that if her son is forced to detransition, it would inflict psychological and emotional damage, possibly even pushing him to suicide. She, like many Hoosier mothers, fears for her son’s life.
The executive director of Gender Nexus says the bill is contradictory to many other bills being pushed through the legislature. She says while Republicans are the party of small government, she considers this bill classic governmental overreach. She and Hunter agree that the health and medical care of children should be left to the child and their parents, not the state.
Emma Vosicky speaks on her testimony, her advocacy group, and the Senate hearings.
Vosicky says she thinks the hearings seemed biased. She said during the testimonies, many voting senators were not paying attention; they were looking at their phones, murmuring to each other, and even walking out of the room. To Vosicky, she said it seemed as though most of the senators had their minds made up before listening to any testimony.
This means that if the bill is signed into law by Governor Holcomb, there is an avenue for advocacy groups like the ACLU or the Human Rights Watch to file for an injunction. An injunction would force the state to cease enforcing the bill until the case is heard by a higher court, such as the Indiana Supreme Court, or the Supreme Court of the United States.
In a red state like Indiana, it is almost inevitable that SB 480 gets signed into law. If that happens, many families are considering leaving the state. For most, this means selling their homes, finding new jobs, and moving their entire family to states like Illinois or Michigan, where trans children have more rights. Authors and supporters of the bill say they are passing this bill to protect children, but the outcome seems to be different than intended.
