Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have outlawed sex change hormones and surgeries for minors.
The bill, Assembly Bill 465, would have barred health care providers in the state from administering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or performing sex-mutilating surgeries on youth identifying as transgender, The Hill reported. In his veto message, Evers accused Republican lawmakers of perpetuating “false, hateful, and discriminatory anti-LGBTQ policies in rhetoric in our state.”
“This type of legislation, and the rhetoric beget by pursuing it, harms LGBTQ people and kids’ mental health, emboldens anti-LGBTQ hate and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of Wisconsinites,” Evers claimed.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – SEPTEMBER 24: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers speaks during a campaign rally at the Washington Park Senior Center on September 24, 2022 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Evers, a Democrat, will face Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels in the November election. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“His veto is expected to survive a challenge from Republicans in the state legislature, who voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill in October. While Republicans hold majorities in both the state Senate and Assembly, they do not have enough votes to override the governor’s veto,” according to the report. “Still, Wisconsin Democrats say they must remain “extremely vigilant” in upholding Evers’s vetoes. In the state Assembly, Republicans are just two seats shy of a supermajority, meaning all Democratic Assemblymembers must be present to fend off an override.”
Evers further claimed in a statement on Wednesday that health care providers should be trusted to prescribe sex change hormones and perform sex change procedures on minors “without the unnecessary political interference on politicians.”
“I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to restricting physicians from providing evidence-based and medically appropriate care to their patients, restricting parents from making decisions with physicians to ensure their kids receive the healthcare they need, and preventing patients from receiving that basic, lifesaving care,” he said.
Laws barring sex change hormones and procedures for minors have been passed in at least 22 states since 2021, although several are currently being challenged in court, according to the report.
Democrats across the country are actively working to disempower parents who oppose gender ideology — the false pseudo-religious belief that one can be born as the wrong sex, be “assigned” a sex at birth, or choose one’s own “gender.”
Gender ideology has notably been promulgated by leading teachers’ unions, school curriculums, social media, and widespread transgender activist campaigns to influence the upcoming generation into believing they can choose their own “gender.”
At the state level, several Democrat governors have sought to disempower parents by making their states “sanctuary states” for transgender youths seeking sex change hormones and procedures, like California and Washington.
Moreover, the Biden administration has outright told parents to “affirm” their child’s “gender identity,” and has promoted sex change hormones and surgeries for minors. Various federal agencies are also side-stepping Congress by proposing rules that prop up gender ideology at every level of the federal government, including rules that would force schools to accept males in female spaces and keep Christians from fostering children who are deemed to be LGBTQ+.
