Amid a national epidemic of child-focused transgender policies that leave parents out of the equation, a Maryland bill enshrining parental rights appears to be garnering bipartisan support.
Maryland’s HB 722 would forbid health care providers from providing any transgender medical procedures, commonly called “gender-affirming care,” to minors without parental knowledge and consent.
Under the bill, anyone who authorizes or provides such transgender procedures to minors could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and sentenced to prison for one to three years.
State Del. Lauren Arikan, R-Harford County, who proposed the bill, wrote that it is necessary to “ensure the protection of minors from life-altering, permanent medical procedures that have not been proven as necessary or helpful in the treatment of gender dysphoria.”
The bill’s sponsors include 16…
