Disappointed in "a woeful attack against science and reason"

I was disappointed to see Casey Knudsen side with Democrat colleagues to vote against HB113, which would have protected Montana children from genital mutilation and hormone-blocking drugs for the sake of treating “gender dysphoria.”

Studies indicate that upwards of ten percent of those who undergo the procedure known as “gender-affirmation surgeries” regret their decision, and the number is higher for children. Meanwhile, the disfiguring procedures double the risk of stroke in both males and females, double the risk of heart-attacks in men (and triple in women), and increases the chance of deadly blood clots by 4.5 times. Meanwhile, those who undergo such procedures are at a higher risk of suicide and self-harm than before the “transitions.” Furthermore, hormone-only regiments often render the patient infertile for the rest of their lives, unable to have children should they ever decide to procreate.

While we can make space for personal autonomy, should a grown man or woman want to disfigure their reproductive parts, there is no room in a logical and sentient society to allow adults to make these decisions for children or to allow children to make these decisions for themselves. We don’t allow minors to lay in tanning beds, get tattoos, or get elective plastic surgery (in all other instances). This agenda is not being pushed by logic or reason, but by unscientific social engineers.

The decision of Casey was a woeful attack on science and reason. A man cannot become a woman by surgical or hormonal “treatment,” and a woman cannot become a man by such “treatments.” While the libertarian perspective (one that I share) makes room for adults to do any nonsensical thing they wish supposing it doesn’t hurt others, voting against HB113 amounts to nothing short of child abuse.

Such surgeries and hormone regiments do not affirm gender, but categorically deny it. What they affirm is the mistreatment of children by bad parents and physicians who would be better off practicing medicine on the Island of Dr. Moreau than in Montana.

-Ps. Jordan Hall, Sidney