South Carolina Lawmakers File Extreme Anti-LGBTQ Bill That Would Criminalize Medical Professionals Who Provide Essential Care to Transgender Youth

The egregiously dangerous bill, H.4047, proposes imprisoning trans-affirming medical providers for up to 20 years. It also requires school teachers, counselors, and nurses to “out” transgender youth to their parents. 

This week lawmakers in South Carolina proposed H.4047, a bill that would prohibit transgender people under the age of 18 from receiving essential medical care and create a school climate where they are unable to be themselves. The bill would make it a felony for medical professionals to provide transition-related care to transgender minors. Conviction could result in up to a 20-year prison sentence for the medical provider. 

The bill also requires teachers and staff at schools in South Carolina to share with students’ parents if they learn that a student’s “perception of [their] gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor's sex.” In effect, the bill essentially requires teachers to “out” transgender students to their parents, potentially before they are ready to share. A nearly identical bill is pending in Alabama. 

This is the second explicitly anti-transgender bill filed this session in South Carolina. The first, H3477, would prohibit transgender youth in middle and high school from participating in student athletics. That bill has advanced to the House Judiciary committee, despite opposition from a broad coalition of South Carolinians, including SC’s Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, a Republican. 

SC United for Justice & Equality, a coalition of more than 30 organizations committed to LGBTQ equality in SC, is working against the bill. Chase Glenn of the Alliance For Full Acceptance, a leader in the SC United coalition, said today:

“This is one of the most extreme political attacks on transgender people in recent memory. In one dangerous package, it jeopardizes the health and safety of transgender youth, threatens to criminalize physicians and nurse practitioners for providing trans-affirming care, and requires educators and school administrators to break the trust of their students. The amount of harm this bill will do to South Carolina cannot be overstated, but I am especially concerned for trans youth: Transgender youth suffer heightened levels of anxiety, dysphoria, depression, and suicide. Refusing them medically necessary care only increases that risk and creates a culture of discrimination.”

Ivy Hill is the Executive Director of Gender Benders, the Community Health Program Director of Gender Benders, and a leader of the SC United coalition. They said:

“My heart is heavy with the gravity of what this bill means for our transgender youth in South Carolina. This bill would be an absolute wrecking ball to every safe haven a transgender young person has. Under the proposal, youth could not confidentially turn to a supportive teacher or counselor to express feelings that they might be transgender. They would not be able to go to their medical provider to receive health care that could save their lives. Where are they supposed to go? To live their lives with dignity and confidence, trans kids would be put in the position of begging their doctors to risk prison time and urging their teachers to break the law. I am shocked by this bill’s heartlessness and urge lawmakers to wake up to the damage it will cause if advanced.”

Dr. Mike Guyton-Nunley, MD, is a Board Certified Adolescent Medicine Specialist, Pediatrician, and Internist who serves transgender youth in Greenville. He said:

“I have cared for hundreds of adolescents and young adults who identify as trans, and I provide comprehensive medical care aimed at treatment of their gender dysphoria. As a physician, I took an oath to do no harm – but withholding medically necessary care from transgender patients would, without any doubt, cause significant short- and long-term harm. Enacting this disturbing anti-transgender legislation would prohibit me and other medical providers from doing our jobs, forcing us to violate existing standards of medical care for transgender patients, standards that are supported by leading medical authorities. A person’s gender identity shouldn’t limit their ability to seek care.” 

H4047 prohibits best-practice medical care that has been backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American Medical Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and other leading health authorities. 

Advocates from the SC United for Justice & Equality coalition are available to speak with media about the bill and its damaging impact on transgender youth. 

Learn more at www.SouthCarolinaUnited.org/medical-care