Medical providers shared concerns about governmental overreach in Senate files approved by the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee Thursday.

Sen. Anthony Bouchard, (R-Cheyenne), sponsored Senate File 99 — Chloe’s Law — and Senate File 98, which both have a laundry list of cosponsors. The Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee heard the bills Wednesday.

Bouchard explained Chloe Cole’s story inspired SF 99. Cole, who spoke during the committee meeting, is an activist from California who lived as a transgender boy for several years before detransitioning. She urged the committee to act quickly on the bill.

“We have to stop the medical industry from taking advantage of these kids in the same way that I was taken advantage of,” Cole said during the committee meeting.

Chloe’s Law would ban gender-affirming care for minors in Wyoming. The banned care would include surgery and prescribed hormone therapy.

Those who shared testimony in favor of SF 99 said children should not have gender-affirming surgery and could outgrow gender dysphoria — when someone feels their body does not align with their gender — as they mature.

“A child’s mind and body need time before these actions are considered,” southwest Wyoming resident Laura Pearson said during the committee meeting.

Wyoming Medical Society Executive Director Sheila Bush said Wyoming does not have the sub-specialty teams in the state to perform gender-affirming surgeries.

“Gender reassignment surgeries are not performed in Wyoming,” Bush said. “... Any notion or story otherwise is just not true.”

Bush added gender-affirming care should be discussed within the medical industry, not in the Legislature.

Dr. Michael Sanderson, a pediatrician in Sheridan, echoed Bush’s remarks in a conversation with The Sheridan Press.

“I am deeply concerned by the interest the Wyoming Legislature has with the practice of medicine,” Sanderson said.

Sanderson, who also serves as the Wyoming chapter president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said during the committee meeting that the academy is openly opposed to surgery for minors seeking gender-affirming care.

American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming Advocacy Director Antonio Serrano explained banning gender-affirming care could lead to suicidal thoughts or tendencies, social isolation and increased drug use.

“It would ban lifesaving, gender-affirming care for trans Wyomingites. We believe banning gender-affirming care is vast government overreach that undermines the fundamental rights of parents and discriminates based on transgender status and sex in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” Serrano said.

According to The Trevor Project 2023 national survey on the mental health of LGBTQ young people, trans and nonbinary people are less likely to attempt or consider suicide when they have access to gender-affirming care and environments.

“This bill will not stop Wyomingites from being trans, but it will deny critical support that helps struggling transgender youth become thriving adults in our state,” Serrano said.

The committee voted unanimously to send SF 99 to the Senate floor for consideration.

Senate File 98 would extend the statute of limitations until someone’s 21st birthday if he/she wishes to pursue a lawsuit for gender-affirming care received as a minor. Current law allows a lawsuit to be filed within two years for alleged medical malpractice.

“If we’re going to take a child and say it’s OK to do these procedures and then they find out there’s a problem, then we’re going to go all the way to their 21st birthday and allow them to come back as an adult and enter into possible litigation,” Bouchard said during the committee meeting.

Public testimony was much shorter for SF 98, in part because the two bills were so similar.

Wyoming Equality Executive Director Sara Burlingame said the organization is opposed to SF 98 because its provisions to seek redress for medical malpractice are already accounted for in state statute.

The committee also voted unanimously to send SF 98 to the Senate floor for consideration.

The Senate approved the first reading of both bills Friday afternoon.