Arkansas became the first state in the United States to outlaw gender identity confirmation therapies and surgeries for transgender people under the age of 18. The law, as reported by the BBC, prohibits doctors from prescribing drugs capable of affecting the development and stage of puberty. Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill, but the Republican majority in the state House and Senate thwarted the governor’s intervention and completed the approval process.
The law was bluntly rejected by the National Association of Pediatricians (AAP): the measure, specialists say, risks preventing transgender adolescents from accessing crucial therapies and could increase the already high risk of suicide. Legal actions are looming to oppose the law: in particular, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is already at work.
