A Missouri House committee heard testimony for more than five hours Tuesday on bills that would indefinitely extend the state's restrictions on transgender youth and athletes.
Four bills would end the sunset on a law that prevents minors from accessing gender-affirming health care such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments.
The other three would, similarly, repeal the expiration date on the law that bars transgender athletes from competing for sports teams that align with their gender identity. That provision applies to public, private and charter schools through the collegiate level.
"What was right three years ago is not going to automatically become wrong in another year," Rep. Jamie Gragg, R-Ozark, one bill's sponsor, said. "This just tells the folks of our state, and children of our state, that this is the right thing to do."
Another bill sponsor, Rep. Melissa Schmidt, R-Elridge, said the state would be better off employing a "watchful-waiting approach" that holds off on gender-affirming care until adulthood.
"I'm noticing tonight that there are no kids here," said Democrat Minority Whip Aaron Crossley of Independence. He and other House Democrats named examples of friends or constituents who left that state.
"There are countless families like that, that people felt so unsafe by their own government that they had to flee the state to get the care they needed," Crossley added.
History of the legislation
In 2023, the legislature approved the bans with the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act. But to compromise with Democrats and pass the bill through the Senate, lawmakers added a provision for the restrictions to expire on Aug. 28, 2027.
That date does not apply to the law's ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors, which is not due to sunset.
Last week, the law withstood a challenge from health care providers, parents and advocacy organizations when the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously voted to uphold the ban on gender-affirming care for youth.
This is the third year in a row that lawmakers have introduced legislation to permanently extend the bans on gender-affirming health care and sports participation for transgender people.
The legislation would also remove the grandfather clause in the original law that allowed transgender minors to continue with their gender-affirming medication if it was prescribed before the law went into effect.
A bill with all these provisions passed the Senate last session but stalled in the House.
Tuesday's testimony
About 10 people spoke in favor of this year's bills that would remove the sunsets, while more than 20 spoke against them. Those who testified in opposition included transgender people, parents and advocacy organizations.
Testimony about health care for minors lasted more than three hours. The hearing on transgender athletes took more than two hours.
In opposition to the bill that would end the sunset on gender-affirming care for minors, Dr. Brandon Barthel, a Kansas City endocrinologist, said that health care for transgender minors is a yearslong process and that doctors are best poised to provide sound advice.
"I like you guys, but I don't think I want you in the exam room with me and my patient," Barthel said.
Barthel rebutted claims that doctors stand to make money from gender-affirming care, an idea that Robin Lundstrum, a Republican state representative from Arkansas, suggested in testimony at the hearing.
"The medical professions have weighed in, and they are making bank on our children," Lundstrum said.
Speaking in support of their bills to end the sunset on the athletics ban, all of the House Republicans sponsors said the legislation was a matter of fairness for women in sports.
In opposition to the bill, transgender St. Louis University student Lear Rose testified that they would like to be able to participate in their school's fencing competition with friends.
"I would like to play my sport because I enjoy it. I wanted to try a new hobby," Rose said. "And this law is getting in the way of me just being able to try something new."
Other transgender supporters said that the ban has caused them to consider leaving the state and that without gender-affirming care, they would have faced immense mental health struggles.
If approved by the House committee, the bills would still need to be passed by both chambers of the legislature and signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe before taking effect.
A November ballot initiative to overturn Amendment 3, which ended Missouri's abortion ban, would also indefinitely ban gender-affirming health care for minors.
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