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Committee adopts, sends to House floor bill barring custody decisions based on parents'views of child's gender identity
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee adopted a first substitute and voted 7-1 to give a favorable recommendation to first substitute House Bill 413, which would bar consideration of parental opposition to certain transgender medical interventions and parents'assertions about a child's gender when deciding custody or protective custody.
Representative Joel Kohler introduced House Bill 413, child custody proceedings amendments, saying the bill was drafted after cases raised concerns about parents losing custody over disputes about a child's gender identity. "The purpose of this code is to prevent parents from losing custody of their children because a parent believes and insists that a child's gender at birth is the same as the gender of that child throughout their life," attorney John Woodard told the committee during the sponsor presentation.
The proposal would amend language in the Utah juvenile code and the domestic relations code to make certain considerations off limits in custody proceedings. According to Woodard and Kohler, the bill would remove from consideration: a parent's opposition to hormonal treatments for a child, a parent's opposition to surgical changes of a child's sex characteristics, and a parent's assertion that the child's gender identity corresponds with the sex assigned at birth.
Woodard said the draft relies on defined terms elsewhere in state code to limit scope and to ensure the changes do not exceed the sponsors' intent. "Some of these changes, there's some protections already in place under the code, but I don't think that they're adequate," he said, explaining that current language prevents protective custody on the sole basis of a parent's position about a child's gender identity but does not forbid consideration when combined with other factors.
Public comment in favor included Mary Ann Christiansen of Utah Legislative Watch, who framed the bill as a parental-rights measure. Representative Francis Auxier moved to adopt the first substitute; that motion was approved by voice vote and recorded as passing 7 to 1, with Representative Miller voting no. Representative Ochsior then moved that the committee favorably recommend first substitute HB 413 to the House floor; that motion similarly passed 7 to 1 with Representative Miller voting no.
Supporters said the bill clarifies that parental views on a child's gender cannot be used against the parent in custody decisions. During committee discussion, Representative Grant Miller asked whether there were documented instances across the state in which caseworkers had intervened specifically because of such disputes; the sponsor and representative Kohler said they were not aware of a reliable statewide count of such cases.
The committee voted to send the bill to the House floor with a favorable recommendation.
Ending: The committee adopted the first substitute and recommended it to the House floor; the bill will now proceed to the full House for further action.
