‘Parents’ rights’ law penalizes anyone ‘recruiting’ a child to receive gender-affirming care without parental consent

Just days after the Tennessee state legislature passed a bill to allow teachers to carry concealed firearms in schools without notifying parents, the same GOP-controlled body of lawmakers passed legislation that would penalize adults for helping a minor receive gender-affirming medical care without parental consent.

Although the bill’s original text made assistance a crime, the final text adopted Thursday creates a civil cause of action against any person who “knowingly removes a minor from this state without the consent of a parent of the minor for the purpose of assisting the minor in obtaining a healthcare procedure that is for the purpose of enabling the minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.”

In addition to creating liability for removing a minor from the state, the bill also creates a cause of action for “recruiting” or “harboring” a minor for the purpose of receiving the prohibited medical care. The language mirrors legislation approved Wednesday that makes it a crime for an adult to help a minor get an abortion without parental consent.

The Republican supporters of the bill characterized it is an important measure to protect parental rights.

“This is a parent’s rights bill, nothing more, nothing less,” said the bill’s Republican sponsor, Rep. Bryan Richey, during the House debate. “At the end of the day, parents should have final say what medical procedures their children are receiving, and nobody else.”

Republican Gov. Bill Lee has not said whether he plans to sign either bill passed by the legislature this week. However, he has never vetoed a bill since taking office in 2019. April saw a slew of bills centered around “parents’ rights” passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature.

On April 4, lawmakers approved a measure that would allow LGBTQ+ children to be placed with families that hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs — in sharp contrast with Colorado’s legislature, which passed a bill the same time establishes a bill of rights for foster children that would require foster parents to use an  LGBTQ+ child’s preferred name and pronouns.

A week later, the same Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill that requires school employees to inform parents if a student asks for action to affirm their gender identity, such as using a different name or pronoun, as well as one that bans the spending of state funds on hormone therapy or sex reassignment procedures for prisoners.

The Human Rights Campaign said that by enacting more anti-LGBTQ+ laws than any other state in recent years, Tennessee stands apart as the most hostile state in the nation to transgender people.

“Tennessee lawmakers are on the verge of enacting more than twice as many anti-LGBTQ+ laws as any other state, a staggering assault on their own constituents,” Human Rights Campaign Senior Director of Legal Policy Cathryn Oakley said in a statement. “LGBTQ+ people and our families live in Tennessee and these unrelenting legislative attacks have made Tennessee an increasingly challenging place to make a home.”

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