Veto Letter to Governor Cox on HB174

Dear Governor Spencer Cox:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah (ACLU of Utah) strongly urges you to veto House Bill 174, Sex Characteristic Change Treatment Amendments. This bill builds on SB16, a law enacted in 2023 that largely banned gender affirming care for minors.

HB174 would eliminate the exception created in SB16 that allowed individuals to continue care they were already receiving and would instead force many of them to end their ongoing care by January 28, 2027.

Let’s be unequivocal: transgender and nonbinary individuals have always existed and been integral members of our communities, and they have the right to live openly and freely.

It’s clear that the bills being sent to your desk are part of a larger agenda attempting to push transgender people out of public life. The passage of HB174 marks the fifth consecutive year that the Utah Legislature has passed bills limiting the rights and liberties of transgender Utahns. This is a grim, shameful, and ominous milestone. When the government repeatedly and persistently denies the rights of one group of individuals, it places all our rights in jeopardy.

SB16 required the Legislature to commission an independent review of the medical evidence on gender-affirming care, titled Gender-Affirming Medical Treatments for Pediatric Patients with Gender Dysphoria. The report’s concluding findings state, “the consensus of the evidence supports that the [gender-affirming care] treatments are effective in terms of mental health, psychosocial outcomes, and the induction of body changes consistent with the affirmed gender in pediatric gender dysphoria patients.”

The report further concludes: “Based on the reviewed evidence included in this report, it is our expert opinion that policies to prevent access to and use of [gender-affirming hormone treatment] for treatment of [gender dysphoria] in pediatric patients cannot be justified based on the quantity or quality of medical science findings or concerns about potential regret in the future.” These findings directly affirm the concerns outlined in our original letter urging you to veto SB16.

Healthcare decisions should be made by the patient, their parents or guardians, and the individual medical professionals on their care team, not politicians. For these reasons, we urge you to veto HB174.