On Thursday, the Tennessee Statehouse offered approval of a bill that would allow civil causes of action to be brought against adults aiding minors in accessing transgender procedures without parental consent.
A summary of the bill on the Tennessee state legislature’s website states that “as introduced,” the bill “creates a civil cause of action against any person who knowingly removes a minor from this state without the consent of a parent of the minor for the purpose of assisting the minor in obtaining a healthcare procedure that is to enable the minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.”
This means that adults who take such action, assisting minors in leaving the state to obtain cross-sex hormones or to undergo transgender procedures, are liable for taking that action and can be sued. The original version of the bill included criminal penalties for adults in violation of it, but it was amended to only allow for civil penalties for violators.
The Associated Press notes that the bill is extremely similar to one approved on Wednesday, which would allow civil action to be taken against adults who assist minors in obtaining an abortion without parental consent. That bill left the state Senate with a 26-3 vote.
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The Tennessee lawmakers’ approval of the bill penalizing adults for helping minors access transgender procedures clears the way for it to go to Republican Governor Bill Lee, who is reportedly expected to sign it into law. Days ago, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bryan Richey, said: “At the end of the day, parents should have final say what medical procedures their children are receiving, and nobody else.”
Last year, Lee signed a bill banning sex-change procedures for minors just months after Daily Wire host Matt Walsh exposed details about Vanderbilt University’s gender procedures on children.