New bill being drafted concerning transgender teens

A new bill being drafted on Capitol Hill may force teens identifying as transgender to wait until the age of 18 to pursue hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery.

Critics of the bill worry it could cause more harm than good.

For Utah County resident Rylee Deeben, the last eight years have been difficult.

During that time, she’s experienced gender dysphoria and suffered from depression and anxiety after coming out as gay and being bullied in junior high.

“I would always look in the mirror and question why I was so uncomfortable with the way I looked or the body parts I had,” said Deeben.

She almost lost her life to suicide in 9th grade because of the emotional and mental burdens she endured as a transgender teen.

Without the financial means or support of her family, she had to wait until she was 18 to fully transition.

“I would have definitely had hormone therapy and surgery when I was 16 if I could.

It would have saved me from so much grief and problems with development and growing up.

I wouldn’t have had to go through male puberty and then female puberty too,'” she said.

“But my family wasn’t very accepting and wouldn’t let me transition. So for that time, I just socially transitioned.”

Under a new bill being drafted by Rep. Brad Daw, teens with the same experience as Deeben’s wouldn’t have the option to pursue hormone therapy or gender assignment surgery until they are legally an adult.

“We saw that there were some transgender procedures being performed on minors.

We studied that, what was going on, and what the concerns were.

We actually approached some doctors and some providers and asked them some very pointed questions,” he said.

“Since then, the operations that we’ve heard of have ceased to happen. But that made us think, ‘We ought to have something in statute because this kind of a thing is so life-changing.

It needs to happen when they’re an adult.'”

Story provided by our news partners at ABC 4 News.