ANNAPOLIS, MD—On Wednesday, in the Health and Government Operations Committee, HB 722 will be heard by members of the Maryland House of Delegates. The bill prohibits a healthcare provider from knowingly engaging in or causing certain medical or surgical procedures to be performed on a minor without the consent of the parent, guardian, or custodian of the minor if performed for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of, or affirm the minor’s perception of, the minor’s gender or sex and the appearance or perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex; establishing certain penalties for a violation of the act. The bill states that removing a minor’s healthy or non-diseased body parts or tissue is prohibited.

Delegate Lauren Arikan sponsored the bill in order to protect minors from life-altering, often permanent procedures that have not been proven as necessary or helpful in the treatment of gender dysphoria.

“Maryland should not become a permissive state experimenting on children, especially seeing what other countries are doing to protect minors, such as Sweden and Finland,” said Delegate Arikan. “Current Maryland law does not protect parents’ rights to be the primary decision-makers for their children’s health and well-being when it comes to transgender medical practices.”

Maryland is one of five states that allow preteens to receive mental health treatment without parental consent. On Tuesday, an amendment to HB 522 requiring parental consent was shot down in the House of Delegates when minors engage in telehealth appointments during school hours. A recent New York Times article shared the excruciating reality of detransitioners who regret undergoing “gender-affirming care.”

A story about one young lady who began her transition at 17 years old said, “At no point during her medical or surgical transition, Powell says, did anyone ask her about the reasons behind her gender dysphoria or her depression. At no point was she asked about her sexual orientation. And at no point was she asked about any previous trauma, and so neither the therapists nor the doctors ever learned that she’d been sexually abused as a child.”

Delegate Arikan is joined Wednesday on her witness panel by Jamie Reed, a queer, liberal woman from St Louis. She resigned from The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after witnessing alarming practices being taken upon children without proper restraints or parental consent and clearly in opposition to her promise to “do no harm.”

Also joining Delegate Arikan on the witness panel is Ismail Royer of the Religious Freedom Institute; Lisa Geraghty, the Maryland mother of a child who almost transitioned; Jerry Lawler, a psychologist and founder of the International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners; and Dr. Henry Mosley, an epidemiologist in public health and emeritus professor in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproduction Health at Johns Hopkins.

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