Bill to make Minnesota a sanctuary for child sex change surgeries up for a vote on Thursday

The full House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on HF 146, a bill to confirm the state’s status as a “Trans Sanctuary.”

Sponsored by first-term Rep. Leigh Finke (DFL-St. Paul), recently named USA Today‘s MN Woman of the Year, the bill would, according to its advocates,

House File 146 would turn Minnesota into a trans refuge state by protecting trans people, their families, and medical practitioners from legal repercussions for traveling to Minnesota to receive gender-affirming care. Trans people of all ages depend on gender-affirming care, which encompasses a wide range of social and medical interventions to affirm someone’s internal gender identity, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, permanent hair removal, voice therapy, and surgical interventions.

The key phrases above are “of all ages” and “surgical interventions.” In the bill’s eight pages, the word “child” is inserted into existing statutes eleven (11) times. Of the bill’s ten sections, the first five deal with children and child custody issues.

In the Center’s exclusive Thinking Minnesota opinion poll, our pollsters found that the practice of sex change operations for minors is supported by only 22 percent of the state’s registered voters.

Some 67 percent of voters oppose the practice. Voters from every political party and every demographic oppose this.

Not only will it be allowed in Minnesota, the state, under HF 146, will become a nationwide hub.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently signed an executive order that covers much of the same ground. His move received national and international attention, not all of it favorable.

After Thursday, the bill will move to the state Senate, where Democrats hold a one-seat majority.