Speaking with State Senator Julie Daniels, and you just had a very important bill
to the governor and one to you and probably the other bilks too as well,
just signed into law by the governor. Tell us about it. That's
correct. This is the bill that will ban gender reassignment procedures and treatments in
miners under the age of eighteen. This issue is one of national interest,
very much of interest to Oklahoma's I know, walking around Bartle's bill doing errands
on Saturday, I was stopped by a handful of people saying thank you for
getting that bill passed, so I know other people have been watching it carefully.
It was a team effort. I appreciate the eleven authors in the Senate
who allowed me to combine different parts of their bills into this one, and
to the House for cooperating with me. On a minimum, a child should
not be making adult decisions as a child, and I believe that a good
number of parents will breathe a sigh of relief that we are stepping in to
say we must be watchful, and we must wait, and we must use
the best available mental health and behavioral services for these young people. Because it
is my firm belief reading about the cases where there is a lot of regret
and physical consequences to individuals who do this when they are very young, that
we stand a good chance of resolving some of the distress of these children by
the age of eighteen, so that they then do not proceed to go through
these irreversible life changing decisions with mental and physical consequences as a result, some
level of maturity is needed, and of course, in Oklahoma, children or
individuals can make their own healthcare decisions at the age of eighteen. I know
eighteen is not truly as mature as we would like, but that is in
keeping with the rest of our laws. I cannot imagine the distress to both
child and the families going through and walking through these issues. And this bill
is intended to give time because in many cases we find out that the identity
as transgender, the gender non conforming, or the gender or the gender dysphoria
may have something else at the route of those feelings, and if you can
be successful in working that out, you could save many people from making these
rife changing decisions. I know their opposition to the bill, but it is
absolutely meant tom as a protection, not a condemnation of anyone. This is
simply give these kids and families time and mental healthcare providers time to work through
as many of these issues as possible.