“Jeopardy!” Champion Amy Schneider testified before a committee of the Ohio House of Representatives Wednesday against a bill that would restrict gender-confirming medical care for minors.
Schneider First Transgender Athlete to Qualify “Jeopardy!” The Tournament of Champions and Ohio native may have attended the meeting “to demonize supporters of this bill and claim they want to harm children.” said no.
“I truly believe that all of us here have the same goal of keeping Ohio’s children safe and healthy.
However, she added:Save Youth From Experimentation (SAFE) Method– seeks to limit physicians’ ability to provide puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, and gender confirmation Surgery on minors puts some children at “significant risk and puts them all at risk that they may not survive.”
Schneider said she knew this in part due to her own experience. She won $1 million for “Jeopardy!” Top Female Earners on the Show); visit the White House.When Married to his wife GenevieveMay.
“Still, if all of this was still the way it is and the only change was being told I was no longer able to access hormone therapy, I don’t know if I could live,” Schneider said. He said.
She said her entire life before coming out as transgender felt like “this quiet alarm went off in the back of my head” saying “danger, danger.” After she received gender-affirming care, she said, “For the first time in her life the alarm went off and for the first time she knew peace and quiet.”
Schneider, one of a dozen who testified Wednesday, said transgender youth who have access to gender-affirming care would have the same opportunity to achieve peace.
“So what I’m asking you to do here today is don’t take it away from them,” she said. “Please don’t make them feel wrong or unsafe all the time. I’m not asking anyone here to change your personal view of trans people. I’m a pronoun.” I’m not here to scold anyone about what their children are doing. I ask you to do anything but not limit your freedom to decide for yourself what you need.”
Democrat Rep. Latina Humphrey asked Schneider if she ever regretted receiving gender-affirming care after transitioning, or had suicidal thoughts.
“I have never regretted taking it,” Schneider replied. “It improved my life in ways I never expected. I learned who I was and wouldn’t be here today – in fact, if I got it If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t exist.” I made it on Jeopardy! There’s nothing happening for me right now. “
The original draft of the bill, as amended at Wednesday’s hearing, said: would have stopped the doctor From providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and transition-related surgery to minors. It prohibited public funds from being used or distributed to hospitals and organizations that “provide gender transition procedures for minors,” and prohibited Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for minors. Advocates say school staff would have required students to ask questions. Gender identity to parents.
Family, Aging and Welfare Commission after Schneider and several others testified adopted an alternative Rep. Gary Crick, a Republican and one of the original bill’s supporters, said it was an effort to listen to critics’ concerns.
The alternative bill would allow physicians to perform gender-confirming surgery on minors and to treat minors as “sex-related conditions” without first disclosing the minor’s referral to a parent or guardian. Prohibits referral to mental health professionals for diagnosis or treatment. Also, doctors may prescribe puberty blockers or hormone therapy if a list of conditions are met. Physicians must ensure that minors receive regular counseling for two years related to the transition, and that drug use causes “vaginal atrophy, penile atrophy, testicular atrophy, and permanent loss of libido.” , infertility, endometrial cancer, or polycystic ovary syndrome.”
Physicians who prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapy are also required to annually report data related to these treatments to the Ohio Department of Health. This includes the number of patients undergoing such treatment, age at birth and sex.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Crick said the reporting requirement is an effort to gather more data on transgender people and their treatment in Ohio.
“We’ve made quite a few concessions to bring this to a compromise,” Click said of the replacement bill. “Our goal is to ensure the safety of those migrating and only those who are ready to migrate.”
Many of those who testified on Wednesday It said the updated proposal introduced by Crick after the replacement bill was adopted still negatively impacts transgender youth in the state by creating unnecessary barriers to care. Click did not immediately return a request for additional comments.
Nick Rashtka, president and CEO of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, said imposing a two-year waiting period on drug use “would create an environment where drugs are not used at all.”
He also said that delaying treatment for two years would cause more transgender youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria to experience depression, creating another hurdle to getting treatment started.
Accredited Medical Institutions — including American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — Supporting gender-affirming care for minors.
Some Ohio families said the bill would force them to move.
Gary Greenberg, who describes himself as a retired educator, said one of his six grandchildren is seeing a therapist for treatment of gender identity disorder. As a result, his daughter said he would have to leave the state if the bill passed, and she said she would take him to Greenberg.
“So we proposed legislation in Ohio that would allow three generations (three generations) of Ohio families to flee the state. We would be the lucky ones,” he said. rice field. t.
Schneider did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment on the amended bill.
Ohio is part of a wave of states in the past two years to consider bills to limit gender-confirming health care for minors. This year alone 160+ state bills According to the ACLU, there have been proposals across the country to limit transgender rights, with 43 of them targeting transition-related care for minors. four states — Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee — Passed laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors.the judge isblocked of Alabama When ArkansasSteps from pending lawsuit coming into force.
