Bill banning hormone therapy for transgender inmates heads to governor's desk
The Utah State Correctional Facility is pictured from a 'free speech zone' set up about two miles from the facility in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024 as the state prepared to execute death row inmate Taberon Honie just after midnight. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
The Utah Legislature gave final passage on Thursday to a bill that would restrict certain treatments for transgender inmates in the state's prisons, jails and juvenile detention facilities.
Sponsored by House Majority Whip Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, HB252 passed the Senate Thursday and is headed to the governor's desk. It passed along party lines in both the House and Senate, with Democrats in opposition.
The bill would require all minors in a detention center to be housed in accordance to their sex assigned at birth, while prohibiting the use of puberty blockers. It also prevents sexual relations between staff and people housed in juvenile detention centers (people up to 25 years old are sometimes housed in these centers).
And, the bill prevents the state's county jails and two prisons from administering 'cross-sex hormone treatment' and any kind of gender-affirming surgeries for adult inmates. People who started treatment before incarceration would be allowed to continue it.
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Elective and cosmetic surgeries are already unavailable to inmates in the two state prisons, the Utah Department of Corrections confirmed to Utah News Dispatch on Thursday.
According to data from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees health care in the state's two prisons, there are currently 33 Utah inmates receiving hormone replacement therapy — 29 transitioned from male to female, and the remaining four transitioned from female to male.
Of those 33, seven were receiving hormone replacement therapy at the time of their incarceration. The remaining 26 requested the treatment while in prison. Had Lisonbee's bill been in place prior to their incarceration, they wouldn't have been able to receive treatment. The legislation is not retroactive.
Lisonbee's law is part of a national movement imposing restrictions on transgender inmates. On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled 'Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government' that, among other things, required federal agencies to house inmates in accordance with their biological sex.
'When we have people in custody, whether that's in adult custody or youth custody, a lot of parts of their lives are under restriction. It's a different environment. They can't drive, they can't decide where they live, they can't leave the premises,' said Sen. Derrin Owens, R-Fountain Green, who sponsored the bill in the Senate. 'It's a highly structured society.'
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But opponents to the bill cited safety concerns, specifically around housing.
'Being a teenager is hard enough; being a teenager in secure care is a particularly precarious situation,' said Rep. Grant Miller, a Salt Lake Democrat and public defender. 'I can only imagine the difficulties, for example, of a trans female minor being housed with young males. I think that presents a meaningful safety issue.'
Miller also had concerns that the bill could spur a lawsuit over lack of access to health care.
HB252 is the latest bill passed by lawmakers that deals with transgender Utahns — Cox recently signed HB269, which restricts where transgender college students can and can't live in public universities.
During previous sessions, lawmakers have passed laws banning access to gender-affirming care for minors, dictating what bathrooms transgender people can use in government buildings, and preventing transgender teens from playing girls sports.
'I hope we're about done with bills in this body that target this population,' said Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City, before she voted 'no' on the bill Thursday.
While the state does not allow any kind of cosmetic or elective surgeries for inmates, it does have a policy for them to receive hormone replacement therapy.
Per the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, those inmates undergo a lengthy screening and evaluation from nurses, a mental health therapist, a psychologist, and possibly more health care professionals.
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The review considers the medical, mental health and security risks or benefits to the inmate — prior to the initiation of treatment, the inmate is required to participate in group therapy for at least one year 'in an attempt to effectively treat the symptoms of Gender Dysphoria,' the policy states.
For their first year of treatment, the inmate undergoes a re-evaluation every 90 days. After that, they get a re-evaluation every 180 days. The treatment can also be discontinued, according to department policy, if the individual isn't compliant with recommended mental health treatment, or a health care professional decides they no longer meet the criteria.
That policy was the subject of a lawsuit earlier this year, when former President Joe Biden's Department of Justice found the Utah Department of Corrections had 'imposed unnecessary barriers to treatment for gender dysphoria' on an inmate. That lawsuit was dismissed in January, according to court records.
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