One State Will Impose a Waiting Period to Start Irreversible Transgender Care

Madeline Leesman | October 03, 2023 1:45 PM

Nebraska will require children who believe they are transgender to wait seven days before starting hormone therapy treatments or taking puberty blockers under new emergency regulations announced Sunday.

According to the Associated Press, the new regulations from the state’s health department also require “transgender” minors to undergo at least 40 hours of “gender identity-focused” therapy before undergoing any kind of so-called “gender-affirming” care:

A new law that took effect Sunday bans gender-affirming surgeries for trans youth under 19 and also required the state’s chief medical officer to spell out when and how those youth can receive other care.
The state Department of Health and Human Services announcement that Republican Gov. Jim Pillen had approved the emergency regulations came after families, doctors and even lawmakers said they had largely gotten no response from the department on when the regulations would be in place. They worried that Pillen’s administration was slow-walking them to block treatments for transgender youth who hadn’t already started them.
“The law went into effect today, which is when the emergency regulations were put in place,” department spokesperson Jeff Powell said in an email Sunday to The Associated Press. “Nothing was slow-walked.”