Newsom signs two bills enabling healthcare access for trans youth
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Thursday intended to protect and bolster access to health care for transgender children and adults.
Senate Bill 107 will ensure that trans children from states like Texas and Idaho that have attempted to limit or criminalize access to gender-affirming health care and their families can take refuge in California.
The law prohibits the state or its law enforcement agencies from cooperating with or participating in the arrest or extradition of a person seeking gender-affirming care or their family.
Newsom also signed Senate Bill 923, which requires health care providers and health insurance companies to provide "culturally competent" training and care to transgender, gender diverse and intersex people.
A 2015 survey of transgender adults by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that some 23 percent did not seek health care in the prior year for fear of not receiving proper care as a trans person.
Both laws were authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who called it "momentous ... for trans-inclusive health care."
"California is setting groundbreaking standards that will help us create a better, more culturally competent healthcare system for trans, gender diverse and intersex people," Wiener said in a statement. "No one should have to educate a doctor in order to get the care they need."
Legislators in at least 19 other states have introduced bills similar to SB 107 to provide refuge for trans youth and their parents, according to Wiener.
SB 107 had multiple co-authors among the Bay Area's state legislative cohort, including Assemblymembers Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda.
Equality California, Planned Parenthood, TransFamily Support Services and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis also co-sponsored SB 107.
"As so many states work to erase trans kids and criminalize their families, California must always have their backs," Wiener said. "With SB 107 signed into law, California is forcefully pushing back against the anti-LGBTQ hatred spreading across parts of our nation."
