Tennessee Enacts First-In-The-Nation Law To Stop Adults From Helping Minors Access Gender-Affirming Care

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ® on Tuesday signed afirst-in-the-nation lawto block adults from helping trans youth receive gender-affirming care without their parents’consent.

Under the law, known as House Bill 2310, anyone who helps a child access gender-affirming care within Tennessee state lines can be sued for compensation by the minor or the minor’s parents. There are exceptions for the child’s own parents or legal guardians, for adults who have permission from the minor’s parents, and for transportation companies, like those that operate ride-sharing apps, buses or airlines, that a minor could take to get to a gender-affirming care clinic.

A previous version of the law included a criminal penalty, making anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor within this state for the purpose of receiving a prohibited medical procedure” chargeable with a Class C felony.

Lee’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

Tennessee had already banned gender-affirming care for minors — measures that can include puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and, in rare instances, gender-affirming surgery — last July, when Lee signed an earlier bill, Senate Bill 1, into effect.

“I want to be clear that this in no way bars parents or legal guardians from helping their child access to medical care that they need out-of-state,” Bryan Davidson, a policy director at the ACLU Tennessee, told HuffPost.

“I think that this is an attempt by the legislature to try to use misinformation and intimidation to try to get parents and families to self-censor themselves and to police their own behavior. That is the concerning part.”

If the problem of adults transporting minors across state lines were