Washington state House passes bill to allow hiding minors’ gender transitions from parents 

 

null / Shutterstock

St. Louis, Mo., Apr 17, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

bill under consideration in Washington state would allow licensed youth shelters to withhold information from parents about whether a child in their care is undergoing a gender transition, allowing the shelters to instead contact the state.

The bill, titled “Supporting youth and young adults seeking protected health care services,” introduced by six Democrats, passed the state House last Wednesday. The bill would allow licensed overnight youth shelters housing a minor to inform only the state’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) and not a child’s parents if the child is “seeking or receiving protected health care services.” The bill defines protected services as including “evaluation and treatments for gender dysphoria, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgical procedures.”

“This legislation ensures that our trans youth have safe options and access to secure, stable shelter when they may not be welcome at home,” said sponsor state Sen. Marko Liias, D-Everett, in an April 13 press release. The bill now returns to the state Senate, where it must be voted on before going to the desk of Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee.

Under current Washington state law, shelters must inform a minor’s parents that they are housing a child, unless there are “compelling reasons” not to do so, such as circumstances that indicate the child may be abused or neglected by their parents. In such a case, they must still inform the DCYF.

The Washington State Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops, noted that the bill, S.B. 5599, undermines the foundational relationship between parents and their children, and urged lawmakers to vote it down.

“According to Catholic social teaching, the family is the most central social institution, and it must be supported and strengthened,” the Washington Catholic Conference wrote in an April 14 newsletter.

“S.B. 5599 undermines families. In line with the bishops’ legislative priorities to protect children and families and respect life, the WSCC opposes S.B. 5599.”

Elective surgeries for minors in Washington will still require parental consent even if the legislation passes.

Washington is one of several states moving to protect the ability of minors to access “gender-affirming” treatments, while other states such as Mississippi and Missouri are making moves to restrict the practice.


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


About Catholic News Agency 10378 Articles
Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com)

4 Comments

  1. If there weren’t a conscious strategy to destroy the family as the primary cohesive, humanizing social institution of culture, there exists an ideology of extreme libertarianism that professes all the beliefs that will accomplish the same. Except extreme libertarianism here is defined as promoting total individual freedom and the anomaly of total State control.
    Usurping parental rights is another symptom of this State, mind control, cultural-political ideology. Others are the indoctrination of children to LGBT, critical race theory, a vision of unprincipled liberty, the effort to distance parents from their children as members of school boards, the weaponization of the Justice Department parents investigated, assaulted in home raids, Catholic communities investigated for alleged conservative terrorism, the weaponization of the IRS as a means of intimidation and neutralization. Disagreement with radical sexual, socialist policy, is not only labeled inimical to justice, it’s criminalized as terrorism and insurrection. Widely known is the role of George Soros and ideological colleagues who are determined to destroy Constitutional America.
    Catholicism is increasingly targeted because its beliefs are antithetical to this form of extreme State sponsored libertarianism. Mentioned before is the increasing indication of a Vatican that shows, if not complicity, greater interest in the values of globalist libertarians than the agony of the Church in America. It seems, as some essayists say, that American Catholic hierarchal conservatism is cause for this Vatican antipathy. Favorite cardinals McElroy, Farrell, Cupich, Tobin rarely address the issues of State policy inimical to familial moral health and rights.
    Whether the American Church bears the brunt of persecution [the dressing down and humiliation by the Vatican of Card DiNardo for an attempt to investigate the major scandal of adult clerical homosexuality is clear indication of that animosity toward the American Church] from two sources, State and Vatican. DiNardo was chastised because he inadvertently touched on a scandal that has now become glaringly evident with Pope Francis’ choice of homosexual favorable prelates for key positions at the Vatican and in the Church at large.
    This is our agony. This is our venue for sanctification.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*