Walley Wrap: Senate Prioritizes Legislation to Protect Children
By State Senator Page Walley
Last week, our Senate committees voted on legislation and continued to hear reports from various agencies and organizations. Legislation passed committees to protect children from irreversible medical procedures to change their gender identity and inappropriate sexual performances. To help provide better care to children in state custody, we announced over 15 bills aimed at improvements to DCS and adoption and foster care services.
This week, Governor Lee made his fifth 2023 State of the State address on Monday, February 6, 2023, in a joint session of the General Assembly, where he unveiled his 2023 budget proposal. Next week, I will provide highlights on the governor’s proposals.
The legislation that would prohibit minors from undergoing irreversible and harmful medical procedures to change their gender identity is one step closer to becoming law. Senate Bill 1 was approved in the Health Committee this week. The bill seeks to ban medical interference that alters a child’s hormonal balance and procedures that remove body parts to enable the minor to identify as a gender different from their biological sex.
This legislation is about protecting children from harmful, life-altering, and experimental medical procedures with unknown long-term effects. But we know that children who have these procedures are forfeiting healthy reproductive systems and subjecting themselves to lifelong hormone treatment. The weight of these decisions is too heavy for children.
Another bill that seeks to protect children from inappropriate activities was approved in our Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Senate Bill 3 aims to protect children from being exposed to sexually explicit performances. It would restrict adult cabaret performances of a sexual nature from being performed on public or private property if kids could be around to see it.
Under the bill, private establishments, such as bars or restaurants, that host sexually explicit shows must require patrons to show ID upon entry to ensure they are age 18 or older. This is a common-sense protection that provides clarity regarding what performances are not appropriate for children.
Finally, led by our Adoption and Foster Care Caucus meeting we announced multiple bills aimed at improving the adoption and foster care process in the state such as removing red tape in the adoption process, increasing the number of children that someone can watch in their home and reducing the caseload of Department of Children’s Services (DCS) caseworkers.
As pro-life lawmakers, it is imperative we protect life not only of the unborn but also beyond the point of birth. This means we have to strengthen the social welfare system that takes care of children in Tennessee. We need to make adoption and foster care cheaper, easier and quicker so that we can increase the number of adoptive and foster care families in Tennessee.
Please contact me at sen.page.walley@capitol.tn.gov or my office at (615) 741-2368 if we can be of service to you in any way.
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