Despite serious issues like our state’s workforce shortage, affordable childcare, education funding and health care, some North Dakota lawmakers seem hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of our transgender friends and neighbors. A number of the bills that have passed and await Gov. Doug Burgum’s action represent a coordinated, hate-driven campaign to push transgender people out of public life.
The far-reaching bills, which include everything from prohibiting transgender people from obtaining birth certificates that accurately reflect their identity to banning trans people from using restrooms that match their gender identity, represent an unprecedented, coordinated effort to deny trans North Dakotans their freedom, safety and dignity.
One of the most egregious bills headed to Gov. Burgum’s desk is House Bill 1254, legislation that will allow the government to intervene in private medical decisions and prohibit doctors from providing life-saving gender-affirming health care to transgender North Dakotans. The bill represents vast government overreach that undermines the fundamental rights of parents who are making health care decisions for their children. Additionally, by singling out gender-affirming care for categorical prohibition, House Bill 1254 violates the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.
Doctors and medical organizations have been providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth for decades, and it is supported by every major medical association, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. The risks of denying this health care to the young people who need it are grave and well founded, while passing this legislation has made North Dakota less safe and less welcoming for transgender youth, their families and all who love them.
House Bill 1254 is a devastating and dangerous violation of the rights and privacy of transgender North Dakotans, their families and their medical providers. Medical decisions belong to patients and their parents and their doctors – not the government. The only controversy in providing life-saving gender-affirming care for transgender youth in North Dakota is the one fabricated by legislators who want to see this harmful bill become law.
Take Action Today
Urge Gov. Doug Burgum to veto House Bill 1254 now. We’ve made it easy with this form. Just type your name and address and we’ll do the rest!
Then, contact Gov. Burgum about the other anti-trans bills that passed this week, too. Call his office at 701-328-2200 or send him a quick email.
Are you on Twitter? Tweet @DougBurgum and ask him to veto these bills.
- House Bill 1473 and House Bill 1522 bans trans people from using restroom facilities in state entities, including K-12 schools and public college dorms as well as prisons and jails, that match their gender identity. Additionally, House Bill 1522 prohibits schools from referring to students by any pronouns that do not reflect the sex assigned to them at birth.
- House Bill 1249 and House Bill 1489 would ban transgender women and girls from competing on the sports teams that match their gender identity and forbid their participation in both high school and collegiate athletic activities.
- House Bill 1474 defines “male,” “female,” and “sex” in legal and policy contexts. House Bill 1139 requires the gender of a baby be listed as either male or female on the birth certificate and says the gender cannot be listed as “not yet determined” unless the gender can’t be determined by organs or chromosomes.
- House Bill 1297 would prohibit transgender people from obtaining birth certificates that accurately reflect their identity. Forcing transgender North Dakotans to go through life with inaccurate birth certificates – a basic form of identification and essential government document – would mean trans people would be forced to disclose their trans identity when seeking essential needs.
