Minnesota lawmakers agree to ban conversion therapy, protect gender confirmation care

MN Senate passes 3 trans and reproductive health bills, banning conversion therapy


MN Senate passes 3 trans and reproductive health bills, banning conversion therapy

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The Minnesota Senate waded into the culture wars on Friday by passing bills to make the state a refuge for youth seeking gender confirmation care, out-of-state abortion patients and caregivers seeking protection, and to ban so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth.

All three bills passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives earlier in this session. While the Democrats have a one-seat majority in the Senate, the bill’s sponsors were confident heading into emotional debate. First was the conversion therapy ban, which passed 36-27 with two Republicans voting “yes.” The abortion asylum bill passed 34-29 in a party line vote, and the trans asylum bill passed a similar approval 34-30.

Banning conversion therapy and transgender asylum bills is now directly up to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to sign it. Meanwhile, the bill expanding abortion rights was returned to the House of Representatives for agreeing to add pharmacists to the list of protected medical providers.

Minnesota Senate - The Culture Wars
Opponents and supporters gather outside the Senate House at the Minnesota State Capitol on April 21, 2023, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, ahead of a vote on bills to make Minnesota a refuge for young people seeking gender affirming care, to protect abortion patients from others. states, ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth.

Steve Karnofsky/AP


“The thread in all of these things, of course, is that people should be free,” Democratic Sen. Scott Dibble, R-Minneapolis, author of Banning Conversion Therapy, said at a news conference before the debate.

“The people should enjoy the freedoms guaranteed by our constitution,” Dibble said. “People must have the right to self-determination, and in Minnesota, people must be freed from laws of other states that may affect and negatively affect all those basic American rights and freedoms.”

Together, the three pieces of legislation “say to Minnesotans you’re safe here in Minnesota, and to people who have been forced to flee their home states because they’re not safe there we say, ‘Welcome and you’re safe here in Minnesota”.

Walz has already signed an executive order to protect young people and their families who come to Minnesota to get health care from states where it is illegal to seek gender confirmation care. But the bill would turn that protection into law. Likewise, the conversion therapy ban builds on another executive order from Walz.

The abortion bill is designed to protect people who come to Minnesota to have an abortion from legal ramifications in states where abortion is prohibited or severely restricted, such as lawsuits, subpoenas, and delivery. Minnesota courts will be prohibited from enforcing out-of-state subpoenas for medical records or judgments against patients or providers.

Opponents of banning conversion therapy have argued that it would affect religious freedom and the ability of families to seek counseling for children who say they need help sorting out their sexual identities.

Republican Sen. Paul Oteke, R-Park Rapids, has argued against the abortion bill, saying Minnesota should not protect doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who willfully violate other states’ abortion laws.

“We need to uphold and respect the rules and laws of our neighboring countries and countries across the country,” Otek said during the discussion.

The author of the Transgender Asylum Act, Democratic Sen. Erin May Quade, of Apple Valley, filed an ethics complaint this week against Republican Sen. Glenn Grohnhagen, of Glynco, over a link to a video he emailed to Democratic senators, with a note saying it documented ” Transgender mutilation surgeries for minor children. Highly graphic and disturbing.”

May Quad said at the news conference that it would be “totally inappropriate” for senators to send videos of genitalia to their colleagues. She said she wanted to “draw a very bright line in the sand as to what constitutes inappropriate conduct and behaviour… This is crossing the line.”

Experts testified as the bill passed committee hearings that gender confirmation surgery is very rare for minors, and that gender confirmation care for them usually ranges from changes in clothing and hairstyles to counseling and hormonal therapy.

What he shared, Gruenhagen explained, was actually a video that doctors at the University of Louisville College of Medicine created as a tutorial for gynecologists to introduce them to gender reassignment surgery. The video introduction does not reveal the patient’s age.

“I am disappointed that Senator May Quad chose to make this matter public before… engaging with me with her concerns,” Grohnhagen said in a statement claiming the complaint was unfounded. “I’m sure we’ve come up with some solution as colleagues.”

May Quad told reporters that senators can maintain strong opinions without sharing such images. She was supported by Democratic Rep. Lee Fink, of St. Paul, who is the first trans person elected to the Minnesota state legislature.

“Trans people are not distorted. Trans people are totally trans,” Fink said. “We are entirely ourselves…they are obsessed with our bodies and our genitals in a very appalling way.”

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