Legislation

In puberty blocker decision, Baruth favors ‘medical professionals’ over parental consent

By Guy Page

In a December 5 interview on WVMT’s The Morning Drive, Sen. Phil Baruth, the leader (“Pro Tem”) of the Vermont Senate, appears to support legislation allowing minors to begin puberty blockers without parental approval. 

H659, introduced January 18 2022, would “allow a minor who identifies as transgender to consent to receiving hormone blockers and other nonsurgical, gender-affirming care and treatment without requiring parental consent.” The bill is considered likely to be reintroduced after the 2023-24 Legislature convenes next Wednesday, January 4. The following transcript was lightly edited for readability. 

Caller: Good Morning, I have two questions, generally the same topic about House bill 659. Just introduced this year and probably coming your way soon enough. The bill allows for children to chemically castrate themselves without parental consent. I was wondering once it gets to the Senate, would you support it? 

Sen. Phil Baruth: I’m wondering, you gave a house bill number, but all of the bills from the previous biennium are dead. So, there are no bills yet. I’m curious, what I think. Maybe you’re talking about a bill that is no longer in the process. 

Morning Drive host Kurt Wright: Yeah, As some might not know all the bills when a new legislative comes in as you mention phil. Every bill is gone and nothing is held over. 

Baruth: Right! 

Wright: Someone may propose it again, but it is not necessary proposed yet. 

Baruth: Yes, but to go to what your main point is the question: do I support gender-affirming medical care? The question is yes. I think in general Democratic majorities in the house and senate do support that and we absolutely oppose what I see as a demonization of various parts of our party including trans youth who are trying to figure out their identities and working with their doctors and their families to accomplish that. 

Wright: And Phil, what we hear for concern sometimes about that though is, are families involved in that? 

Baruth: Well, I mean if somebody has a medical right, you know that they are an adult and can pursue their own medical care with their doctor then they should be doing that. If they are a minor, they are going to need their family involved. So this discussion, we have had about abortion for years. The place where this gets sticky is where someone, family, is hostile to in one case the idea of an abortion of a child. The other case, affirming gender identity and that’s where this discussion generates. 

Wright: I want to get back to the phone call, but I want to just go a tad further. Is there any point where a kid, a child, is too young [to make a] a decision, even with family, about changing their sexual identity?

Baruth: Well again, we’re talking about medical professionals working with the families. That’s not just MD’s, but in some cases therapists or psychiatrists trying to help to determine the best path for that child and that family. Um, so I tend to be the sort of person to side with medical experts on these issues. 

H.659 was sponsored by Reps. Tanya Vyhovsky, Taylor Small, Elizabeth Burrows, Brian Cina, Selene Colburn, Mari Cordes, Katherine Donnally, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, Barbara Rachelson and Heather Surprenant, all Progressives or Progressive Democrats.

Categories: Legislation

39 replies »

  1. Article 22. [Personal reproductive liberty] That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.
    Does this provide the State the power of persuasion and collusion (with the medical community) to pursue it’s compelling State interest? It appears Article 22 was a planned set up so they can put forth their perverted legislation with vim and vigor. The least restrictive means would be to remove and deny parental rights. The boomerang will be when that person goes after the State for the infringment of their rights and having no basis of fact proving their compelling interest. Financial gain from the misery and disfiguring of others is not a compelling interest.

  2. Would Senator Baruth side with “professionals” if the shoes were on his feet, and the “professionals” decided differently than he about one of his children ? I suspect that as a hypothetical he would find it easy to respond in the woke manner that he seems to support, but would he in fact hold that line if one of his minor <18 year old children decided that they wanted to transition to the opposite gender ? Hell at that age they don't know if they want to be a rock star or a computer nerd.

  3. So the senator would side with the same medical professionals that just lied their way through two years of Covid? The same professionals who pushed a poisonous gene therapy experimental drug on children and masked them against their will causing irreparable mental and social development issues? The professor may know his English studies but his critical thinking skills are non-existent. People in positions of power like this are dangerous to us all. If these people start messing around with peoples children, the results may not go very well.

    • Perhaps the professor’s ethics and morals are not close to the ethics and morals Vermont and The US were founded on. It appears the professor may see man as the greatest power, with none higher. It seems to be a common view from our progressive/socialist/communist friends…
      The current Merriam Webster definition of fascism is defined as:
      1 : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
      2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

      I leave it to the reader to determine any parallels.

  4. Do we rely on professional tattoo artists to make decisions about whether it is in the best interest of a 17-year old to have body art and leave the parents out of it? The Vermont legislature restricted tattoos to those 18 or older unless written permission of parent or guardian is provided. Is is too much to ask that the same criteria apply for hormonal alterations? Elections have consequences, and anyone who voted for this clown ought to hang their head in shame.

    • I’ve been “socialist for decades. Marxism is about the govt. controlling everything. There is a vast are in the community that might be labeled “socialist” that disagrees. We simply don’t think that big corporations should control everything either.
      Other than that, the “Progressive” party has been leaning fascist for years.

  5. Let’s just hope that the children of Baruth and the other liberals do decide to chemically (or physically) castrate themselves so that they do not reproduce and bring more liberal minded people into the world. Of course if one of them does get pregnant, they could always opt to abort their baby (not a fetus or a blob). It is a sad state of affairs.

    • The dirty little secret is that in most cases the sexual mutilation or hormonal manipulation of a “transgender” person renders them incapable of reproducing and passing on their mental proclivities. There is some level of hope in what is left of Darwinism in our society.

  6. Can we just call this what it is ?? Evil. Straight up. The legislature has NO MORAL RIGHT to do this. The only time the state can dictate actions for minors is when physical custody of a child has been temporarily removed from the parents. Otherwise, the state should stay they hell out of their pants !

  7. Historians tell us that at the end of the revolution, close to a million people were given the choice of leaving the USA or being executed. — I can see a time coming when good people will be making such a requirement on the communists again.

  8. Since WHEN do we “affirm” a mental illness? Do MD’s approve liposuction for anorexia? Give booze to alcoholics? “Affirm” paranoiac’s & tell them they ARE being watched/followed? This would be bad enough for ADULTS but KIDS? “Therapists & shrinks”? Never known one who wasn’t more screwed up than their patients were, at least an MD & Shrink attended med-school but “therapists”? They SEE the dollar signs, one had now a “mobile clinic” (trailer) to haul from school to school & rake in that CASH..Insanity..

  9. Parents who really care about what is being said here need to give this guy the boot next time around. There are enough parents in his district so this would not be a problem at all.

    • The voters of his district in Chittenden County just recently had the opportunity to give him the boot…that’s the real sickness of this situation. We voted for this.

  10. Vermont based in the rings of hell. If it is immoral, twisted and evil, Montpelier will support it. I would ask if children can make such life altering decisions, then why aren’t they mature enough to own guns?

  11. The driving vision behind this is that we should relinquish our responsibility for ourselves to anointed authorities to see to our well being. The merits of their direction derives from their “anointed” mantle. Our evaluation of their wisdom is typically erased from consideration. Elected officials and the academic/scientific community seem to be posturing as our overlords. The last time we confronted such presumptive authorities we were facing ecclesiastic managers of our spiritual lives. We had hundreds of years of religious wars to over throw those entrenched authorities trying to throttle our endemic liberty. “Submission” to experts is usually an error. Isn’t purposive consideration of what’s offered more prudent?

    • I really can’t stand these folks who think they are equivalent to GOD. What we have now is the GOD legislature. Beware.

      • Progressives dont think they are equivalent to God, they think they are BETTER than God, and who is this God thing anyway…? What are it’s pronouns?

  12. Baruth is an evil dude re: slow-creep to disarm Vermonters along with other shenanigans such as this/these.

  13. Whatever happened to the concept representatives having been elected to serve the will of the people, not corporations, NGO’s, or special investigative committee’s. Time to form a committee to ensure our legislator’s read the Constitution’s, both state and national. Perhaps even set up a time for prayer before each session commences. These people are Evil.

  14. We no longer have to depend on “experts” to tell us (or our children) what to do. We can research the options ourselves and make our own decisions.

    To prevent us from exercising our freedom would be like dragging us back into the Dark Ages. They may call themselves “progress”ives, but in reality they are the exact opposite.

  15. I find the Progressive/Democrats want to pass a bill that has not had a medical study on long term issues from taking puberty blockers. They want to allow children to decide an issue that will be life altering. But the same Progressive/Democrats passed legislation that does not want 18 yr olds charged as adults BECAUSE THERE BRAINS ARE NOT DEVELOPED ENOUGH TO KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG. Does this make any sense at all..

    • Mark, thanks for pointing out another glaring hypocrisy and inconsistency in the thinking of leftist idiots. When it comes to understanding right from wrong, a 22-year old committing a violent offense or a home burglary is just a “good person with a still-developing brain having a bad day” but it is perfectly ok for a woke, activist teacher to recommend to a youngster that they be essentially spayed or neutered like a stray dog. It’s hard to put a good face on liberal logic.

  16. Really every progressive democrat including the so called republican governor who either helped sponsor and/or supported article 22 should get the boot!!! Recall the whole lot. No professional provider knows what puberty blockers and hormones will do really except what it says it does and that’s stop the child’s body from going through puberty or try reversing puberty and then give them hormones of the opposite sex to change their gender. What you don’t know is that there is a strong possibility that it will give you osteoporosis at 30 years of age or cancer-they just don’t know all the side effects because it has never been studied long term in the US. If you were confused about your gender —-after you take these blockers you will be chemically castrated and can NEVER go back to the way you were before. How can you ever feel good again if you go threw with these drugs and are still unhappy? You were not ready really to make such a drastic decision and could not fully understand the full scope of what was going to happen to you. I’ve seen cases of 19 year olds who went threw treatments and surgery only to turn around and sue the doctors—that’s where we’re headed!!!
    Right now it’s state funded sterilization of the next generation of Vermonters and legislators don’t care at all about the consequences of their actions—it’s all planned. A state sanctioned eugenics program. Mary

  17. I wonder if Senator Baruch realizes that The Trevor Project, which is one of the main contributing sources for this bill’s premise, is nothing more then an advocacy group out of California. If you go to their website there is not one person with gender dysphoric expertise involved with this organization. All of their data is gathered and based on their own questionnaires given online to 13-22 year olds. They offer services like private chat rooms for kids and a 24 hr suicide hotline. Which by the way, YOU TOO can become one of the Trevor Projects suicide councilors after taking their 40hr training course.

    The Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey (VYRBS), was the other source that was cited. Again, no real data, just conjecture drawn from children’s answers to a few online questions. (At least no dangerous chat rooms or unqualified suicide councilors were offered from this source. )

    Where is the real scientific data that would justify this bill? There is none. This is the only disease where the patient does the diagnosing. A child says they want to mutilate their bodies, and chemically castrate themselves and the medical field is obeying the child’s illogical and dangerous demands. Would they agree with an anorexic child and give them diet pills to continue their demise as well?
    Many countries around the world have stopped this cruel treatment of children. I pray our elected officials will see the truth and stop following this utter madness.

    • Behavioral health professionals have long been untrustworthy. “Against Therapy” by Moos is a good book on the subject.
      I have “invisible” disability based in neuro-metabolism. Medical evidence was ignored and I was drugged for years as a child. This caused further damage thus insuring that I would need more endless drugs and therapy. There are countless people in such predicament.

  18. Baruth is always incredibly condescending.

    Other countries and many states are already hitting the brakes on this nightmare, as they follow the science.

  19. FYI, Tanya Vyhovsky is the State Senator for Essex/Winooski/Burlington. She doesn’t provide an email or phone number on the Vermont Legislature’s website. Selene Colburn isn’t listed on the Vermont Legislature’s website.

  20. Expect a major ruling soon on this issue which will be against TG bathroom use and possibly sports. Thereafter likely will be taken up by SCOTUS. Just an educated guess.

  21. I think it is extremely irresponsible to think that it is okay to give hormone blocking agents to children without the consent of the parents. Baruth states that the parents,school and a physicians are working together with the kid. Simply untrue. A great part of Article 22, Prop5 that noone paid attention to is: schools are going to be able to have kids sign consent forms without their parents knowledge for hormone blockers and chemical castration. HOW MANY kids under the age of 18 are going to be given INFORMED consent by a physician if they are at school? Once these kids take these meds, there is NO TURNING BACK! For Baruth to say that he will side with the medical experts is the height of irrespnsibility. THe same medical experts that gave us vaccines that do NOTHING? The same ones who are okay with Mengele style injections of who knows what, to see what happens to us? In otherwords we are expendable? I hope that every member of our legislature and
    every school teacher, and administrator has their medical malpractice insurance up to date. Same goes for the school nurses. First, do no harm. I think that h as been forgotten, or shoved under the rug. Most parents were so caught up in the “abortion” issue that they did not read the part that they are going to lose all parental control of their children in school. They had better wake up fast!!!

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