“We know employees thrive and do their best work when they can bring their authentic selves to work,” Gaither said. “We also believe that everyone has the right to make the healthcare decisions that they feel are right for themselves and their families.”
More than 20 states have imposed new laws that prevent doctors from providing puberty-blocking drugs or transgender surgeries for minors over the past few years. The laws follow moves in some European countries to put the brakes on these services for minors.
The laws vary by state, but many prohibit surgeries that remove a child’s genitals or reconstruct his or her genitals to resemble the genitals of the opposite sex. These surgeries generally sterilize the child.
In many states, other cosmetic surgeries are prohibited for minors if they remove a healthy part of the body and are meant to facilitate a gender transition. In several of these states, the law also prohibits doctors from prescribing drugs that halt or delay the normal development of puberty and hormone treatments that provide the child with more estrogen or testosterone than what would be normal in a healthy child of that age and sex.
Jay Richards, the director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, criticized Indeed’s decision to provide these benefits to workers.
“Plenty of American corporations think that the benefits of woke policies exceed the costs, and this policy by Indeed is surely an example of this,” Richards told CNA.