A Missouri House committee heard testimony for over seven hours Monday on seven bills that seek to make restrictions on transgender youth and athletes in Missouri permanent.
Four of the seven bills repeal the expiration date on a ban on transgender minors accessing gender-affirming health care such as puberty blockers or hormone treatments.
The other three would end the sunset on the law that stops transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity through the collegiate level.
Speaking on his legislation that removes the sunset on the health care ban, Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, said his community wants this done.
“This is something that my constituents have been asking, ‘Are we going to make sure that this is completely prohibited and do away with the sunset?’ And that's why I filed the bill,” Baker said.
Democrats pushed back on all the bills.
Rep. Emily Weber, D-Kansas City, said it was insulting for some of the sponsors to describe their bills removing the sunset on the health care ban as “simple.”
“It is a slap in the face. Because look at the amount of people that came here to testify against this legislation,” Weber said.
State lawmakers passed a law in 2023 that barred transgender youth in Missouri from accessing gender-affirming health care.
The law also stops transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity through the collegiate level. It applies to public, charter and private schools.
However, for the legislation to make it through the Senate, a sunset was placed on the bill so it would expire on Aug. 28, 2027.
The expiration date applied to both the health care and sports sections of the law. It does not apply to a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth, which will continue to be prohibited in Missouri.
The original law included a grandfather clause making transgender youth who were prescribed puberty-blocking drugs or hormone treatments before the bill went into effect exempt from the ban.
At the time, Senate Democrats said it was a priority to make sure minors currently receiving care would continue to have that access.
Now, for the second year in a row, lawmakers have introduced legislation that removes the sunsets on both provisions. The legislation prohibiting gender affirming care for transgender minors also removes the grandfather clause.
Dr. Josephine Glaser spoke in favor of the legislation related to gender-affirming care. Glaser, who practices family medicine, said Missouri got it right the first time when the original legislation passed.
“You would be right again to make this a permanent law to promote human flourishing,” Glaser said.
Gender-affirming care includes medical and mental health treatments as well as social support.
The practice is supported by multiple medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. Doctors say it’s rare for minors to undergo any form of transition-related surgery before age 18.
Dr. Ken Haller, a retired pediatrician from the St. Louis area, spoke against the legislation lifting the expiration date on the gender-affirming care ban.
He said he has seen the science around gender care “advance amazingly.”
“One of the things that we often hear is that this is experimental, that this is not proven science. Well, I'm going to tell you a little secret. There's nothing in medicine that is proven science. Science is always evolving,” Haller said.
Overall, six people spoke in favor of the bills removing the sunset on medical care while over 50 spoke against them.
Many who spoke against the legislation are transgender.
Charlie Saunders, 17, said the passage of the original law has denied him the care he has needed these past two years.
“Already I cannot get the hormones that would make me feel like myself. I cannot get rid of this voice that sounds like someone else is talking through my vocal cords,” Saunders said.
Others who spoke against the legislation included parents of transgender children.
Sasha Justice is from the St. Louis area and is the parent of a transgender child. She said her daughter was already receiving gender-affirming care at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital when the ban took effect.
Justice said her daughter stopped receiving that care when the center ended some treatments for minors due to the ban.
“I wish that you could feel what it felt like to tell her that you didn’t want her to live,” Justice said. “I’ve spent years protecting her from bullies and bigots, only to be thwarted by the Missouri legislature.”
After five hours of testimony on the first four bills, the committee then heard testimony on the three bills seeking to remove the sunset on the athletics portion of the law.
“We need to remove the sunset permanently to save the future of women’s sports,” said Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, sponsor of one of the bills.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association already has guidelines on sports participation for transgender athletes. For college sports, the NCAA also has guidelines.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, said the legislature has not had the time to determine if the law is an effective piece of legislation.
She said the reason the sunset exists is because of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans when the bill passed.
“All we have in this building is our word. If people cannot trust us, why bother doing any of this,” Aune said.
