Studies indicate that upwards of 10 percent of those undergoing 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 — triple in women — and increases the chance of deadly blood clots by four-and-a-half 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. 

The decision of Stromswold 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 HB 113 amounts to nothing short of child abuse.

Jordan Hall

Sidney