Elliot Page fights ‘deadly’ bid to ‘criminalise’ trans kids: ‘Their lives depend on stopping this’
Elliot Page. (Instagram/Rich Polk/Getty)
Elliot Page has condemned a bill making its way through the Alabama legislature that would prevent doctors from offering gender affirming care to transgender people under the age of 19.
The bill, which has been named the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, passed through Alabama’s Senate on Tuesday (2 March) by 23-4 votes.
If it is passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law by governor Kay Ivey, the harmful and wide-reaching bill would bar medical professionals from giving puberty blockers and hormones to trans youth.
It would also require teachers and school staff to inform a child’s parents if they learn that the minor has a “perception that his or her gender is inconsistent with his or her sex”.
Elliot Page slammed Alabama’s ‘deadly’ anti-trans bill
The bill has been widely condemned by LGBT+ activists, with many pointing out that it will have devastating consequences on trans youth and their families if passed into law.
Elliot Page, who came out as trans in December, hit out at the bill on Twitter on Friday (5 March).
“Efforts to criminalise trans kids are deadly and we need to fight back against Alabama’s HB1/SB10,” he wrote.
Efforts to criminalize trans kids are deadly and we need to fight back against Alabama’s HB1/SB10. Trans kids’ lives depend on stopping this bill. Tell Alabama lawmakers to #ProtectTransKids #NoHB1 #NoSB10 @ACLUAlabama
— Elliot Page (@TheElliotPage) March 5, 2021
“Trans kids’ lives depend on stopping this bill. Tell Alabama lawmakers to #ProtectTransKids,” he added, and tagged the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama.
The Alabama ACLU responded to Page’s tweet and urged Alabamans to contact their state representatives in an effort to have the degrading bill quashed.
Laverne Cox, originally from Alabama herself, also criticised the bill in an Instagram Live video last Wednesday (3 March).
In the video, Cox said she had avoided addressing the anti-trans bills making their way through various state legislatures because they are “fundamentally dehumanising”.
“All of the ways in which conversations are happening around trans people and sports – specifically trans women in sports – are dehumanising and objectifying,” she said.
“Everything that I have fought for and worked for in my public life is to humanise transgender people, to celebrate the beautiful humanity of trans people. I’m sick of having conversations about the ‘validity’ of trans people. We exist. We are here and the work is to understand that we are here and that we have been treated as second-class citizens for a very long time.”
The bill was proposed by Republican senator Shay Shelnutt, who claimed he wanted to “protect children” by limiting their access to healthcare, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
“You know the male brain – I don’t now when it fully matures, but you know, the human brain is not fully mature, and you know they are going to think differently,” he said.
The ACLU of Alabama has said the bill will put medical professionals in an impossible bind, forcing them to choose between denying trans youth healthcare or facing prosecution.
