By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer
BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – In a resounding rebuke of Gov. John Bel Edwards, lawmakers in the Louisiana House (76- 23) and Senate (28-11) voted overwhelmingly, July 18, to override his veto of HB 648, which protects minors, who are incapable of giving informed consent, against transgender procedures that have been declared “experimental” by medical experts in the United States and Europe.
The bill was the only one of 28 vetoed by Edwards (five Senate and 23 House) that garnered an override vote in both chambers. [Both HB 1 (State Operating Bud[1]get 2023-2024) and HB 2 (Capital Outlay Budget) received line-item vetoes (five and 11, respectively) but were not totally rejected by the governor. They are included in the total above, but neither was brought up during the override session.]
Also known as the “Stop Harming Our Kids Act,” the legislation authored by Rep. Gabe Firment, a deacon with the First Baptist Church in Pollock, specifically prohibits doctors and therapists from performing sex change surgeries and prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones simply to change a child’s appearance from his or her biological sex. Additionally, the bill, which now will become law, Jan. 1, 2024, allows children victimized in this way to file a lawsuit up to the age of 30.
DEBATE
Interestingly, a Louisiana Baptist in the House and another in the Senate led the charge against HB 648 during their respective override votes.
Rep. Jason Hughes, a member of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in East New Orleans, took the microphone on the House floor to argue against HB 648. He identified himself “as a Christian, as a devout Southern Baptist, as a lifelong advocate for our children, as a proud Louisiana, as a child of God and in staunch opposition of overriding this veto” and offered to “highlight a few excerpts from Gov. Edwards’s veto letter.
Hughes said, attributing the governor, that “According to the March 23 Louisiana Department of Health children’s study on gender reassignment procedures on minors from 2017-2021, let the record reflect in this great state of Louisiana, there were zero gender reassignment surgical procedures performed on children in Louisiana. Zero.”
However, neither the governor nor Hughes qualified that claim by noting the LDH only looked at children who are on state aid, such as Medicare, not those who are covered by private insurance, etc.
Likewise, Hughes attacked HB 648 regarding its restrictions of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, saying, “very few children are candidates for these medications to begin with. They may only be considered a potential candidate after two years of intense therapy and counseling.”
But Hughes did not mention the several individuals who testified during committee hearings about the ease with which they were rushed through the medical system, receiving transitioning drugs after a first or second appointment.
Hughes also claimed “Transgender kids, LGBT youth, commit suicide at a very alarming rate.
He also did not acknowledge the only longitudinal (30 years) quality study of its kind performed in Sweden that showed suicide was about 20 times higher among individuals who had transitioned, and these individuals were “at higher risk of suicide attempts” than others in the study. This was a key study mentioned during testimony in the House and Senate.
Sen. Jay Luneau, a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Alexandria, took a similar approach in his attempt to persuade his colleagues not to vote against Gov. Edwards’s veto of Rep. Firment’s bill.
“I do not think that there is a single member of this legislature who is opposed to banning sex change operations for children under 18 years of age. In fact, we’ve not had any such procedures in the state of Louisiana.
He added that “some people across the state still demand that we stop mutilation of children, implying that these sex change operations occur.”
“The proponents of this bill encourage passage to stop minors from being prescribed hormones and puberty blockers as well,” he added. “They make arguments that are mostly based on unsupported al[1]legations. And we heard some of these so-called experts in committee.”
During his argument, Luneau also raised the specter of suicide among transgender children.
Firment, for his part, and largely those who spoke in favor of the legislative safeguards for children, argued “House Bill 648 simply protects children in Louisiana from harm by ending the use of experimental and irreversible chemical and surgical medical procedures on children suffering from a mental health condition called gender dysphoria, where children experience discomfort with their biological sex.”
In the end, the House and Senate voted by more than the required supermajority, or two-thirds of members (70 and 27, respectively) to override Gov. Edwards’s veto, and in favor of making HB 648 a state law.
