Bills opposing transgender agenda pass Missouri Senate, now heading to Missouri House
JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Senate passed two bills protecting children and students from harm caused by the LGBTQ+ agenda, March 23. Both bills are now on their way to the state’s House of Representatives for approval.
Senate Bill 49 (SB 49) – known as the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation” (SAFE) Act – prohibits gender transition surgeries on minors. Senate Bill 39 requires that student athletes participate in sports that correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificate.
Senate Bill 49
Sponsored by Sen. Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove), SB 49 gained Senate approval three days after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced his office was enacting “guardrails” to protect minors from gender transition procedures, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries. Among other things, the Attorney General’s emergency regulation requires “an 18-month waiting period, 15 hourlong therapy sessions” and “treatment of any mental illnesses” before minors would be permitted to undergo gender transition procedures.
Only a month earlier, according to The Washington Stand, “a whistleblower gave an explosive account alleging shocking misconduct of staff who worked with minors at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The allegations include staff members dispensing drugs to children against their parents’ wishes, administering cross-sex hormones to mentally ill children and ignoring the deteriorating physical and mental health conditions of patients – including at least one suicidal teenager.”
Speaking on the “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” March 21, Attorney General Bailey said, “If even 10% of [the St. Louis Children’s Hospital] allegations are true, this is nothing short of child abuse.
“And the problem is we’ve asked the clinic to stop and put a moratorium on these procedures while we look into the matter and determine what is and isn’t happening,” Bailey added. “They’ve refused to do so and claim that they’re the only clinic in the state that provides these services. So we know that’s patently false. We’ve discovered online that other clinics across the state of Missouri are doing this. There’s a clandestine, shadowy industry for gender mutilation of these young children, and we’re going to put a stop to it.”
Urging Missouri Baptists to pray for the ultimate success of SB 49, Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) legislative liaison Timothy Faber noted, “Even the temporary use of puberty blockers may result in permanent conditions which have serious and negative effects. Among these are osteoporosis, seizures, cognitive impairment and more.”
“Washington University in St. Louis, and many others, speak openly about ‘gender affirming’ treatment,” Faber added. “No one in this industry speaks of treating the child in an objective manner or trying to find what is best for the patient. It is automatically assumed that ‘affirming their transition’ is what is best.
“It is evident that our medical community has been overtaken by a particular ideology,” Faber said.
Faber noted that several states – including Utah, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Dakota, Alabama, Arizona and Arkansas – have taken action to protect children from harmful gender-transition procedures.
“The Missouri Senate has passed SB49 which would put an end to such genital mutilation and life altering hormonal treatments for those who are cognitively and legally not able to provide voluntary informed consent,” he said.
“The measure is now in the Missouri House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Even so, such a measure should not merely ‘pass’; it should receive overwhelming bi-partisan support,” he added, encouraging Missouri Baptists to contact their state representatives.
Senate Bill 39
Meanwhile, SB 39 – sponsored by Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder (R-Scott City) – is also heading to the Missouri House for final approval.
The Senate’s approval of SB 39 comes even as some international sports organizations have questioned the wisdom of the LGBTQ+ movement’s impact on women’s sports. The World Athletics Council announced, March 23, “In regard to transgender athletes, the Council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition.” The council’s new ban on biological males playing in women’s sports goes into effect, March 31.
Sen. Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit) wrote, March 26, in the Jefferson City News Tribune, “The transgender sports legislation, SB 39, is simple. Schools will only allow student athletes to participate in sports that correspond to the gender listed on the student’s birth certificate. Biological boys will play against biological boys, and biological girls will play against biological girls. …
“The bill applies to all schools in Missouri – public or private, at all grade levels – with the potential penalty being the loss of state funding,” Fitzwater, a member of Concord Baptist Church, Jefferson City, added.
Speaking of both SB 49 and SB 39, he wrote, “These two bills are among the strongest transgender measures anywhere in the country. My hope is the House of Representatives will approve both measures as written and send them onto the governor for his signature. I believe passage of these protections will be a great win for Missouri’s kids.”
Missouri Baptists can find information for contacting their representatives at https://house.mo.gov.