The commission did not respond to a request for comment about what such a law would look like, but the transgender care children can legally receive in Massachusetts includes therapy, puberty-blocking drugs, hormone treatments, and even surgical operations to alter genitalia, breasts, and testicles.
It’s unclear whether a change to state law would require parents to let their children be subject to all or just some of these procedures.
“We should be concerned when state officials force their hand on parents in how they raise their own children,” Alliance Defending Freedom Director of the Center for Parental Rights Kate Anderson told CNA.
“Parents have a right and responsibility to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children — a right that includes being informed of their children’s struggles with sensitive topics like sex and gender and to help their children according to their own convictions,” Anderson added.
“This trend happening across the country, especially within schools, should draw alarm to all parents because parents, not government officials, should be the ones walking with their kids through these challenges. Parents know their children better than any school official ever could, and they want what is best for their children,” she said.
The commission’s recommendations are part of a growing effort to remove parents from the conversation about whether their children should be socially or medically transitioned into another gender.