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Alabama Joins Florida, Texas As Governor Signs Two Bills into Law to 'Protect Our Children'

Elizabeth Allen By Elizabeth Allen
Published April 8, 2022 at 5:08pm
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Alabama has taken up the fight against early gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary schools as well as prohibiting gender-transition treatment and surgery for minors with the signing of two respective bills into law by Governor Kay Ivey Friday.

The first bill, Alabama’s HB322, started out as a bathroom bill, requiring public school students to use restrooms and locker rooms in accordance with the gender listed on their birth certificate. Thursday morning the bill was amended to include language similar to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibiting discussion or teaching of gender identity or sexual orientation for grades K-5.

The amended bill was overwhelmingly passed both chambers, the Senate by a vote of 25-5 and the House with a 70-26 vote.

Governor Ivey released the following statement regarding the bill: “Here in Alabama, men use the men’s room, and ladies use the ladies’ room – it’s really a no brainer. This bill will also ensure our elementary school classrooms remain free from any kind of sex talk. Let me be clear to the media and opponents who like to incorrectly dub this the “Don’t Say Gay” amendment: That is misleading, false and just plain wrong. We don’t need to be teaching young children about sex. We are talking about five-year-olds for crying out loud. We need to focus on what matters – core instruction like reading and math.”

The second bill signed into law is Senate Bill 184, called “The Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act.”

The bill outlaws the “performance of a medical procedure or the prescription of medication, upon or to a minor child, that is intended to alter the minor child’s gender or delay puberty.”

Additionally it requires the “disclosure of certain information concerning students to parents by schools” meaning schools will be required to inform the legal guardians if a “minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”

The bill also forbids public or private school workers including teachers, principals, nurses, counselors, or other administrative officials from any attempts to encourage or coerce a minor not to tell their parents or guardians of their child’s gender dysphoria.

The bill does not stop with schools. It actually makes it a felony for medical professionals to prescribe medication to minors that block hormones or alters their appearance. In addition, doctors are prohibited from performing any gender altering surgeries including “a mastectomy to remove a female adolescent’s breasts and ‘bottom surgery’ that removes a minor’s health reproductive organs and creates an artificial form aiming to approximate the appearance of the genitals of the opposite sex.”

Doctors or any other person found to have provided any treatment on minors with the purpose of gender suspension or alteration would face felony charges punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Alabama law states anyone under the age of 19 is considered a minor.

Bill SB184 passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 66-28 Thursday.

“There are very real challenges facing our young people, especially with today’s societal pressures and modern culture. I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl. We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life. Instead, let us all focus on helping them to properly develop into the adults God intended them to be,” Governor Ivy said of the bill in a statement.

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