Puerto Rico’s governor has signed a invoice that prohibits hormone remedy or gender-affirming surgical procedures for transgender youth, a transfer that has drawn sharp criticism from activists within the largely conservative United States territory. Puerto Rican Gov. Jennifer Gonzalez accepted the legislation late Wednesday, following a wave of comparable laws handed throughout the U.S.
The legislation applies to folks youthful than 21 and requires 15 years in jail for any violators, in addition to a $50,000 penalty and the revocation of all licenses and permits of medical workers.
“Minors, having not but reached the mandatory emotional, cognitive, and bodily maturity, are significantly susceptible to creating selections that may have irreversible penalties,” the legislation reads. “Due to this fact, it’s the State’s responsibility to make sure their complete well-being.”
It additionally states that public funds can’t be used for such functions.
Puerto Rico’s LGBTQ+ Federation criticized the legislation in a press release Thursday.
“Let there be little question: We’ll go to courtroom to problem the constitutionality of the governor’s merciless and inhumane signing of a legislation that criminalizes well being professionals for caring for trans minors,” mentioned Justin Jesús Santiago, the federation’s director.
Puerto Rico associations that signify physicians, surgeons, psychologists, social staff, legal professionals and different professionals had urged the governor to veto the invoice.
Roughly two dozen U.S. states have related legal guidelines. The Supreme Court docket just lately upheld one such legislation from Tennessee, which restricts gender-affirming look after transgender minors, in a call that’s anticipated to considerably influence entry to medical look after transgender younger folks in half of the nation.
GLAAD, a nonprofit group centered on LGBTQ rights advocacy and media monitoring, have been among the many critics that had urged Gonzalez to veto the invoice after it handed by Puerto Rico’s legislatures. In a assertion launched collectively with the LGBTQ+ Federation earlier this month, the group mentioned such restrictions “would create insufferable burdens for essentially the most marginalized in Puerto Rico.”
