RHB/3/19
Sponsored by Violet McClendon, Reese Click, Jacob Price of Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences
This legislation was filed in the Health category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH LEGISLATURE: |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this act, unless the context requires otherwise, shall be defined as follows: |
| 4 | A) Treatment: medical care given to a patient for an illness or injury |
| 5 | B) Gender reaffirming: the personal process(es) a transgender or gender diverse person |
| 6 | determines is right for them in order to live and thrive in their defined gender so society |
| 7 | recognizes this |
| 8 | C) Gender dysphoria: feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender |
| 9 | identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics |
| 10 | D) Youth Protection Act: it is unlawful for an individual to engage in practices upon a minor, or |
| 11 | cause the practices to be performed, to facilitate the minor's desire to present or appear in a |
| 12 | manner that is inconsistent with the minor's sex |
| 13 | E) Medical licensure: occupational license granting the legal practice of medicine |
| 14 | F) Review: a formal assessment or examination of something with the possibility or intention of |
| 15 | instituting change if necessary |
| 16 | G) castration: any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses use of the |
| 17 | testicles |
| 18 | H) vasectomy: blocks or cuts each vas deferens tube, keeping sperm out of your semen sperm |
| 19 | cells stay in your testicles and are absorbed by your body |
| 20 | I) hysterectomy: the surgical removal of the uterus, and most likely, the cervix. |
| 21 | J) oophorectomy: is the surgical removal of an ovary or ovaries |
| 22 | K) metoidioplasty: female-to-male gender-affirming surgery |
| 23 | L) orchiectomy: surgical procedure in which one or both testicles are removed |
| 24 | M) penectomy: is penis removal through surgery, generally for medical or personal reasons |
| 25 | N) phalloplasty: plastic surgery performed to construct, repair, or enlarge the penis |
| 26 | O) vaginoplasty: plastic surgery performed to create or repair a vagina |
| 27 | P) mastectomy: a surgical operation to remove a breast |
| 28 | Q) supraphysiologic doses: greater than normally present in the body |
| 29 | R) testosterone: a steroid hormone that stimulates development of male secondary sexual |
| 30 | characteristics |
| 31 | S) androgen: a male sex hormone, such as testosterone |
| 32 | T) estrogen: any of a group of steroid hormones which promote the development and maintenance |
| 33 | of female characteristics of the body. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Section 2: This act will change Tennessee’s Youth Protection Act. Currently it is illegal to provide |
| 36 | minors with gender reaffirming care, even under the consent of a parent. An estimated 300,000 |
| 37 | teens experience gender dysphoria in the state of Tennessee alone. If these teens are not treated |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Section 3: This will repeal the current restrictions on castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, |
| 40 | oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, mastectomy, |
| 41 | puberty-blocking medication, supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or other androgens, or |
| 42 | supraphysiologic doses of estrogen or synthetic compounds with estrogenic activity, and the |
| 43 | removal of otherwise healthy or non diseased body parts or tissues and will allow minors to seek |
| 44 | gender-affirming care with the consent of a parent or guardian. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | Section 4: This will repeal all penalties to medical care providers who provide gender-affirming |
| 47 | care to minors with the consent of a parent or guardian. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | Section 5: This will not require any funding from the state. |
| 50 | |
| 51 | Section 6: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | Section 7: This act will go into effect January 1, 2025. |
| 54 | |
| 55 |