CHEYENNE, Wyoming (LifeSiteNews) — The Wyoming state House and Senate last week approved legislation to prohibit transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. If the bill becomes law, Wyoming will be the latest of nearly two dozen U.S. states to ban the interventions for children.
Both chambers of Wyoming’s Republican-controlled legislature approved the bill, Senate File 99, on March 7. The bill will automatically become law if it is not first signed or vetoed by the state’s Republican Gov. Mark Gordon within 15 business days.
SF 99, previously named “Chloe’s Law” in honor of detransitioner-turned activist Chloe Cole, would ban the commission of mutilating transgender surgeries and the prescription of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for children and teenagers under the age of 18. Physicians who violate the law would face the suspension or revocation of their professional licenses.
Transgender drugs and surgeries are inherently destructive and carry grave physical and emotional risks for gender-confused young people. The surgical and pharmaceutical interventions have been linked to serious and permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, infertility, and suicidality.
READ: House Speaker Mike Johnson invites detransitioner Chloe Cole to State of the Union address
To date, it’s unclear whether Gov. Gordon will sign the measure.
The governor has allowed several other laws curbing gender ideology to automatically take effect without the benefit of his signature, including a 2023 measure banning gender-confused boys and men from competing against girls and women in sports. Though allowing it to take effect, Gordon had criticized the bill as “draconian,” suggesting such decisions should be made on local and individual levels, not by the state legislature.
Wyoming Republican state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who sponsored SF 99, told LifeSiteNews via text message on Thursday that it remains to be seen whether Gordon will take any action on the bill banning transgender mutilation for children.
“If the Governor believes that barring males from competing in female sports is draconian, how does he feel about prohibiting sex changes on minors? Only time will tell,” he said.
Sen. Bouchard, who had introduced an earlier version of the bill last year that was passed by the Senate but scrapped in the House, emphasized in his remarks on Thursday that SF 99 is about defending true freedom, not a false freedom promoted by the political left.
“The left says that freedom is for children to choose their gender. The media has propped up this lie. Children are targets, [and] there is war on their minds that is occurring in our institutional education system,” he said. “The message of real Freedom says NO to what is happening to children in America. As conservatives, we must Fight for the Freedom we love.”
While it remains to be seen what action, if any, Gov. Gordon will take on SF 99, the governor has already allowed a separate bill protecting children from LGBT ideology to take effect this month.
On March 5, the Wyoming legislature greenlit SF0009 to prohibit schools from indoctrinating children into gender ideology or keeping secrets about students’ gender confusion.
READ: Wyoming bans LGBT indoctrination, ‘social transitioning’ in schools without parents’ consent
SF0009 directs school districts to “notify a student’s parent or guardian as soon as practicable if there is a change in the student’s educational, physical, mental or emotional health or well‑being,” and respect parents’ “fundamental right” to “make decisions regarding the care and control of their children.” School officials must also receive “written or electronic permission” from parents or guardians prior to “any trainings, courses or classes that address sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The law has taken effect automatically without Gordon’s signature.
Meanwhile, news of Wyoming’s legislature sending SF 99 to Gov. Gordon’s desk comes as nearly half of all U.S. states have already implemented laws to shield children from the real physical and emotional effects of rampant gender ideology.