HELENA, Mont. – Montana’s Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, signed a bill into law Friday to restrict transition care for transgender minors, joining about a dozen states that adopted similar laws since the beginning of the year.
The bill, which bans transitional hormone treatments and surgeries for transgender people under 18, led to a standoff this month between House leadership and Representative Zooey Zephyr, one of the Legislature’s transgender lawmakers.
In a speech on the floor of the House last week, Ms. Zephyr told fellow conservatives that the ban would put “blood on your hands,” and that denying transition care would be “like torture.” Days later, the leadership of the House refused to call Ms. Zephyr during discussion of any bill to be considered by the House.
And on Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House took the unusual step of barring him from the House floor for the rest of the legislative session, which ends on May 5.
Called by Ms. Zephyr called the decision to pass the law “unconscionable” and said it would harm transgender people across the state.
“It’s clear that anti-trans policies are inconsistent with the values of Montana,” he said in a phone interview. “We are a state that cares about its community. There are trans people in every community in this state.”
He said he believed the measure would be upheld in court, and the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups said they would file a lawsuit “to protect Montana’s transgender youth from losing to access health care to stay healthy and alive.”
The bill was also opposed by Mr. Gianforte’s son, David Gianforte, who identifies as non-binary and called on his father to reject what he called “immoral, unreasonable” bills backed by Republicans.
The governor did not speak publicly about the bill Friday, but his office released a brief statement.
“He is committed to protecting Montana children from invasive medical treatments that can permanently alter their healthy, developing bodies,” the governor’s spokeswoman, Kaitlin Price, said in an email.
Representative Kim Abbott, the House Democratic leader, confirmed the bill’s adoption Friday afternoon over her party’s opposition.
“I’m very disappointed that it became law,” he said in an interview. “This is a harmful policy. It affects families and communities trying to get medically necessary care.”
The bill was first sent to the governor’s desk last week. But Mr. Gianforte sent it back to lawmakers with changes, along with a letter declaring gender-affirming care a misleading term and comparing it to “Orwellian Newspeak.”
Republican lawmakers have described transitional care as harmful and experimental, arguing that young people should not be allowed to begin medical transitions before they become adults. But major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, support this care and say the bans pose serious risks to the mental health of young people.
The bill signed into law Friday, Senate Bill 99, is just one of a slate of measures focused on gender identity advanced by the Montana legislature this month, including one that would define gender in binary terms and a which will keep students in public schools. changing their pronouns without parental permission.
Another bill the governor signed this week would make it harder for public school students to be disciplined for misgendering their nonbinary or transgender peers.
Montana politics, once a competitive mix of Democrats and Republicans, has become increasingly conservative in recent years. Mr. Gianforte, a Republican, is a wealthy former software executive.
Over the past few years, Republican state legislators across the country have introduced a wave of bills to control the lives of transgender youth by restricting the bathrooms they can use, the sports teams that they can participate in and the medical care they receive. These efforts have been particularly aggressive since the start of the 2023 legislative session.
Mike Baker contributed to the report.
