SALT LAKE CITY — Hours before three bills set to affect transgender youth were debated by the Utah House committee, hundreds gathered for a protest Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
A sea of blue pink and white flags were seen waving in front of the south steps at the Utah State Capitol. Around 250 people supported the rally in support of trans youth rights, and in protest of the bills they say would be harmful if passed by state legislators.
“I'm a transgender adult here in Utah, and although these bills affect the youth here in Utah, they affect all trans and gender nonconforming adults," said speaker Saige Palsson.
The first of three bills addressed Tuesday, which would prohibit gender affirming surgery for minors, failed by a 9-5 vote. But another would restrict transgender medical treatments and procedures, while the third would ban schools from treating a student in a way that does not match the students' sex on their birth certificate.
Supporters of the bill say they worry about the long-term impacts of surgeries and medications on transgender youth, but people at the rally say it's a part of their health care.
“They've heard their humanity debated up here on Capitol Hill and this year is even harder because the amount of bills that are there and it is all talking about them and trying to say that they don't need their health care, that they aren't who they are, that they are not affirmed in their identity," said Sue Robbins with Equality Utah.
Taking time off from school, 14-year-old Oliver Haws says it feels like a delay in feeling like himself by having to wait until 18 to be eligible for this medical care.
“I keep telling myself once I hit 15, I can start testosterone, I can start feeling comfortable with myself," explained Haws. "Like it doesn’t feel fair to have to wait til I’m 18 to feel comfortable in my own skin.”
Palsson hopes all three bills don't advance out of the House Health and Human Services Committee.
“This conversation is my life and it's it's my prescriptions, it's my medical life," they said. "This isn't something that I get to turn off at the end of the day. It’s something that I have to think about 24/7.”
