Idaho Gov. Little shows a disappointing lack of courage in signing anti-transgender bill | Opinion

What a sad and disappointing day it is for anyone who hoped that Idaho Gov. Brad Little would show courage when it came to protecting transgender rights and adhering to his principles of conservative small government.

By signing into law House Bill 71, which criminalizes doctors if they provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth, Little places himself squarely among the extremist Christian nationalist dark money groups that brought the bill forward.

You can now put Little in company with people and groups that want everyone to practice their religion, like Blaine Conzatti of the Idaho Family Policy Center, which has ties to such far-right groups as Family Policy Alliance, Focus on the Family, Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council.

Approving a ban on gender-affirming care — treatment that is endorsed by the medical profession as life-saving and necessary in some circumstances — is the antithesis of so-called conservative small government. House Bill 71 injects the government’s judgment into a decision that should be left to families and their doctors, just as the Legislature did with women’s reproductive health and is seeking to do with decisions about library books and performances.

If Little were to have a transgender family member and his family doesn’t think gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments, is appropriate, that is his family’s choice to make. But if another family comes to a different conclusion, that such gender-affirming care is appropriate and necessary for their child, that choice now becomes illegal under Idaho law.

Over the past several weeks, as this bill was debated, we have heard from many parents and doctors about the importance of gender-affirming care. We heard from those who know best because of their firsthand experience.

One mom said she provided gender-affirming care for one child, but another child did not need it.

“Do not take options away from parents who are trying to do right by their children,” Jen Blair wrote. “You don’t belong in these decisions. You don’t understand. Stop this bill — young people will die if you don’t.”

One dad of a transgender daughter said gender-affirming care saved his daughter’s life and he couldn’t believe that in a state like Idaho, the government would get involved in such a personal medical decision.

“In my 30 years of living in Idaho, I never would have guessed that Idaho lawmakers would try to tell me and my wife how to raise our children, or that we or her providers would be imprisoned for performing standard medical care — in our case, life-saving care — to our child,” Michael Devitt wrote.

We’ve heard from doctors explaining what gender-affirming care is — and what it isn’t.

A group of Idaho medical students said the bill, if passed, would affect their decision on whether to practice medicine in Idaho.

Former state Sen. Maryanne Jordan, who has a transgender grandchild, attested to the sensitivity and thought that goes into gender-affirming care decisions.

One mom, who is a minister, said she’s providing care for her transgender child and should not be considered a criminal.

A transgender woman said no child should have to go through what she went through as a child growing up with gender dysphoria.

But Little chose not to listen to those voices that are most affected by his decision.

Instead, he chose to listen to those who are seeking to score points and win culture war battles for the sake of appearing “conservative.”

Little had an opportunity to veto the bill, a veto that likely would have held up without a supermajority in the Senate. He could have brokered a compromise bill that banned surgeries, which are not being performed in Idaho, but allowed for other gender-affirming care.

Little and Idaho’s Republican legislators have been duped by these far-right organizations that have descended on Idaho to chip away at Idahoans’ civil liberties.

When this editorial board endorsed Little for reelection in November, we did so with the admonition that Little stand up against these forces that have infiltrated Idaho. We have urged him along the way to veto bad legislation.

“We hope that (Little) can and will stand up against the extremists in his party during his second — and possibly final — term as governor,” we wrote in our endorsement. “We continue to believe that Little can cement a legacy as one of Idaho’s greatest governors, with a little bit of courage, vision and boldness.”

We had hoped Little would have the courage to stand as a breakwall against these waves of intolerance and control that have crashed on Idaho’s shores.

With House Bill 71 becoming law, it is a sad and disappointing day to report that he didn’t.