- Utah Republicans advanced HB174 to ban hormonal transgender treatments for minors.
- Chloe Cole, a detransitioner, supports the bill, citing irreversible treatment effects.
- Critics argue it targets vulnerable communities and misrepresents scientific data on treatments.
SALT LAKE CITY — The realization came slowly, before it became undeniable.
Chloe Cole sat in her California home watching a high school psychology course on a screen.
The lesson, she remembers, centered on the importance of breastfeeding for a baby's health. That is when Chloe said she looked down at her scars. The 16-year-old high school junior had received a radical double mastectomy to remove her breasts the year before.
And the hormonal transgender treatments she had received since age 13 threatened a future with her own children.
"That was the main reason, actually, why I ended up detransitioning," Cole, who is now 21, told the Deseret News.
"I realized that I wanted to become a mother one day, and this would very possibly bar me from that."
Over the past five years, Cole has become the public face of a culture war debate, calling for a permanent ban on hormone therapy for minors because she says it prescribes experimental treatments that are not reversible.
Three years after speaking in favor of Utah's ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, Cole returned to Utah on Tuesday to say that she believes the debate on "gender-affirming care" is over, and to speak on behalf of HB174.
Are child transgender treatments legal?
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City, would permanently prohibit health care providers from prescribing hormonal transgender treatment, such as cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, to minors.
The bill builds on SB16, a law passed in 2023 that banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, put an indefinite pause on hormonal transgender treatments and ordered a review of medical evidence to inform future policies.
The moratorium on hormonal transgender treatments established by SB16 did not apply to minors already receiving treatments who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the passage of the bill on Jan. 27, 2023.
HB174 would allow doctors to continue prescribing hormonal transgender treatments to those exempted from the initial moratorium until Jan. 28, 2027. Any violation of the law would be classified as "unprofessional conduct."
On Tuesday, HB174 advanced from the state House Health and Human Services Committee with a 10-3 vote after more than an hour of at times contentious public comment and presentations from medical professionals and Cole.
"The very basis of so called gender affirming care is a lie," Cole said. "Sex is not a feeling, but an immutable inborn characteristic, and it cannot be changed by mutilation or chemical castration."
Cole's comments were accompanied by remarks from former pediatrician David Boettger, Utah Physician Licensing Board member Alan Smith, Gender Harmony Institute president Jeff Bennion and Do No Harm medical director Kurt Miceli.
The group argued that hormonal transgender treatments have unknown or unsafe effects on minors. Between 2019 and 2023, nearly 14,000 minors received sex-change treatments in the U.S. — including 135 in Utah, Miceli said.
Utah's review: debunked?
They also provided evidence that the "systematic review" conducted by the Drug Regimen Center at University of Utah Health to comply with SB16 had failed to provide an accurate analysis of the data — or the lack thereof.
"It was clearly biased in favor of gender-affirming hormone treatments in minors," Smith said. "It simply ignored the most serious and irreversible consequences to these treatments, such as sexual dysfunction, infertility and even sterilization."
As previously reported by the Deseret News, the review was intended to synthesize available data on hormonal transgender treatments for minors. The conclusions of the 1,000-page review were presented to lawmakers in May.
The review found "positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes," alleging there was "virtually no regret" associated with treatments and largely dismissing concerns about bone density and brain development.
Despite claiming to be "likely the most comprehensive" systematic review of studies related to transgender medical treatments to date, it excluded key studies from 2024 and did not address side effects related to infertility.
Its conclusions also conflict with reports conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and several European nations, which have stopped recommending hormonal transgender treatments for minors.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson at University of Utah Health told the Deseret News the review they conducted found "an extensive body of research regarding the safety and efficacy of these treatments."
"Our review also found that the consensus of that evidence is that the treatments are safe in terms of changes to bone density, cardiovascular risk factors, and metabolic changes," the statement said.
Critics oppose the bill
More than a dozen critics of the bill accused lawmakers of targeting vulnerable communities, removing essential health care and misinterpreting data. Many said they have personally benefited from transgender treatments.
Often, the comments strayed into attempts to impugn the character of Republican lawmakers. Multiple commenters shouted "shame" as they walked past the presenters and one called Cole "a Republican grifter."
Two mothers spoke against the bill, saying their children were currently receiving hormonal transgender treatments after being exempted from the moratorium and would be forced to detransition if the permanent ban passed.
The committee rejected a proposed substitute to the bill from state Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, that would have extended the exemption for minors who started treatment before 2023 to continue until 2030.
Dailey-Provost, who holds a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Utah, said she believes the bill's presenters had misrepresented the science to make an ideological point about hormonal transgender treatments for minors.
"I'm distressed that, as long as I've been in the Legislature, this is my eighth session, there seems to be this dogged desire to continue to marginalize one of our most marginalized, at-risk populations," Dailey-Provost said.
The committee also voted to advance HB193, which would prohibit the use of tax dollars for transgender treatments, and HB258, which would require insurance to cover detransition treatment if they already cover sex transitions.
