CHEYENNE, Wyoming (LifeSiteNews) — The Republican governor of Wyoming on Friday signed a measure prohibiting destructive transgender drugs and surgeries for children and teens under the age of 18.
Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed the bill, Senate File 99, roughly two weeks after both chambers of Wyoming’s GOP-controlled legislature approved the bill on March 7.
“KIDS ARE SAVED in Wyoming!!!” reacted Chloe Cole, the young woman who “detransitioned” after a double mastectomy and became a prominent activist opposing transgender mutilation, and for whom the original version of the Wyoming legislation was named. Cole also thanked the bill’s sponsor, Wyoming Republican Sen. Anthony Bouchard, and others whom she praised for being “so outspoken on child safety.”
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, SF 99 will prohibit the performance of mutilating transgender surgeries and the prescription of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for minors. Physicians who violate the Wyoming law could see their professional licenses suspended or revoked. The measure was set to automatically become law if Gordon didn’t opt to sign it within 15 business days. Gordon has previously allowed other bills banning aspects of gender ideology, including a 2023 measure banning gender-confused boys and men from competing against girls and women in sports, to take effect without the benefit of his signature.
READ: Wyoming votes to ban mutilating transgender surgeries, drugs for children
In a Friday statement, Gov. Gordon said he decided to put his signature to SF99 to protect children, though he expressed concerns about the measure’s potential intrusion into family decisions.
“I signed SF99 because I support the protections this bill includes for children, however it is my belief that the government is straying into the personal affairs of families” Gordon said. “Our legislature needs to sort out its intentions with regard to parental rights. While it inserts governmental prerogative in some places, it affirms parental rights in others.”
Sen. Bouchard told LifeSiteNews in a Friday text message “[i]t’s our duty to ensure that children make it to adulthood without being victims of the trans cult.” He said he hopes measures like SF99 “continue to spread across America like a wildfire.”
“I am proud to have led the fight in Wyoming, to stop this barbaric form of experimentation,” Bouchard said.
The Wyoming senator also denounced gender ideology as “an awful stain on America, where the political left is hell-bent on cutting perfectly healthy body parts off of children.” He added it is “just as heinous for adults to convince children to do it to themselves.”
Transgender drugs and surgeries have been linked to serious and permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, infertility, and suicidality.
READ: Wyoming bans LGBT indoctrination, ‘social transitioning’ in schools without parents’ consent
Gordon’s Friday signing of SF99 wasn’t his only action of the day. He also opted to veto House Bill 0148- Regulation of Abortions, arguing that the law as-written did not include sufficient safeguards against likely legal challenges.
“[T]he state is closer than ever to a decision on the constitutionality of abortion in Wyoming,” Gordon said in a statement. “It is my opinion that HB148, as amended, had the potential to further delay the resolution of this critical issue for the unborn. The potential of starting over on a new course of legal arguments would in my mind be derelict, and would have only sacrificed additional unborn lives in Wyoming.”
Per the press release, Gordon noted that Wyoming’s existing laws banning abortion have been stalled amid ongoing legal challenges, rendering them unenforceable.
“The previous delays have only sacrificed additional unborn children in Wyoming. We cannot afford further delay of the resolution of this critical issue for the unborn,” Gordon wrote in his veto letter. “I am exercising my veto authority so we do not delay the courts further.”