SC House Republicans go after gender-affirming care in first week of legislative session

Written by Devyani Chhetri

In its first week back in session, the South Carolina Statehouse has started brimming with activity again.

Gov. Henry McMaster unveiled his budget proposal on Jan. 5. Increasing the minimum teacher pay to $45,000, allocating $95 million for workforce tech scholarships, and investing $50 million to build and create training institutes at technical colleges to develop skilled workforce for manufacturing hubs like BMW in the Upstate and Scout Motors in the Midlands are some of McMaster’s agenda items in his plan to address rising needs of a growing state.

Meanwhile, House Republicans have begun the new legislative session with a crusade to ban gender-affirming healthcare for minors. A similar bill is yet to gain traction in the Senate.

The majority of the speakers— pediatricians, medical experts therapists, parents, advocates and transgender residents—arrived at a House subcommittee meeting on Jan. 9 to tell lawmakers about the dangers of taking away gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children. They came prepared with personal stories, binders and pages of widely accepted research illustrating the safety of puberty blockers and LGBTQ+ inclusive counseling, all to dissuade lawmakers from advancing a controversial anti-transgender bill.

But the lawmakers quickly advanced the bill.

Here’s more on what happened in the Statehouse’s first week back to work:

McMaster prioritizes economic development in new budget proposal

South Carolina exceeded its economic expectations, back to back, two years in a row. In 2023, the state had the highest population growth in the entire country.

McMaster said he wanted to bolster growth by investing more funds in technical schools and programs to add a trained workforce of almost 20,000 residents to cover the needs of manufacturers like BMW. He also wants to set aside $50 million to expand commercial airports in the state.

Last year, the SC Teacher Retention and Recruitment Taskforce made some key suggestions to address the teacher shortage. The task force asked policymakers to provide teachers with more funds for teaching supplies so that teachers weren’t paying for required materials out of their own pockets. Another suggestion included simplifying pay bands and extending the minimum salary schedule from 23 years of experience to 30. So more experienced teachers are likely to see pay raises if they have over 23 years of teaching experience.

McMaster also wants to spend $13.43 million for 175 new school resource officers (SROs) in public schools. There were 1091 SROs in FY 2023-2024. There’s also a looming crisis of a declining skilled workforce due to lower birth rates and lower enrollment in colleges and universities. Across the U.S., the college-age population is expected to decline by 15% in 2025. McMaster wants to spend $3 million on a study to investigate the current state of South Carolina’s colleges and universities. The Governor’s office told reporters on Jan. 5 that while enrollment had remained flourished at Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, other public offshoots like technical colleges saw a decline in enrollment, begging the question if some schools needed to be consolidated.

Speaking of another predicament. South Carolina’s bridges are in dire straits. A 2023 SC DOT Accountability Report showed that nearly 9,000 bridges, as old as 60 to 80 years old, needed rehabilitation and repair. McMaster said lawmakers can use $500 million from a surplus Homestead Exemption fund, borne from a 1% sales tax to address the issue. The 1% sales tax was part of the controversial Act. 388. The legislation helped eliminate property taxes reserved for schools for homeowner-occupied properties. This significantly impacted the ability of public schools to raise money. Lawmakers then instituted a 1% sales tax to address the issue and shifted the burden from homeowners to short-term, rental properties. The fund ran a deficit until recently when strong revenue collections had the state accrue millions of dollars.

In other allocations, McMaster suggested the legislature allocated $1 million to the USC-driven Anne Frank Center, the only one of its kind in North America. McMaster’s office said it was in response to the governor’s conversation with Jewish community members on the heels of Israel’s military action in Gaza. Clemson University also gets another tranche of $70 million for its new College of Veterinary Medicine.

Lawmakers quickly advance bill banning gender-affirming care for minors

There are an estimated 3,700 transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 in South Carolina, according to new estimates from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

On Jan. 9, doctors, parents and advocates told lawmakers that the lives of those youth were at risk if lawmakers stripped transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and trans-inclusive counseling. Advocates also highlighted the dangers of forcing school staff to “out” children by telling non-supportive parents about their child’s gender identity.

Rep. John McCravy, R-Greenwood, said the bill was intended to protect “vulnerable children.” McCravy referenced statistics that were complete contrasts of widely accepted, peer-reviewed research. One statistic he referenced said approximately 60% of transgender adults regretted their choice of going through gender reassignment procedures.

But a 2021 review of 27 studies, which covered the experiences of nearly 8,000 transgender patients, found that only 1% regretted their transition. Meanwhile, a Jan. 2023 study, touted to be the largest of its kind, found that transgender and non-binary youth using hormones and puberty blockers showed lowered signs of depression and anxiety.

Dr. Deborah Greenhouse, a Columbia-based pediatrician, told lawmakers the provisions of the bill will exacerbate the mental health crisis for children who were already battling social rejection, discrimination and limited options for mental health support. Meanwhile, Dr. Elizabeth Mack with the American Academy of Pediatrics focused on “myth-busting” and said gender-affirming care was an umbrella term for a set of steps that required extensive attentiveness from parents.

“Number one, there is no gender confirmation surgery occurring here in minors in South Carolina,” Mack said. “None. So it’s not of concern, and you can take it off your list of things to be worried about with our youth.”

Charleston residents David and Rebecca Bell grew visibly emotional as they reiterated the importance of gender-affirming care to ensure the well-being of their daughter who had suffered bouts of suicidal ideation and self-harm.

“A couple of days ago, we were explaining to my daughter that we were coming here about this bill and she asked us point blank— why you all don’t believe her or why people don’t believe her? She knows who she is, and it’s really heartbreaking when I can’t give her an answer,” Rebecca said.

Military veteran and parent of a transgender teen, Eric Childs denigrated government involvement in personal health decisions. He also highlighted the religious tint of the bill as a majority of the bill’s sponsors have introduced legislation on the backs of Biblical references. “I joined the military in my youth to defend this country. I was deployed to fight religious extremism and help set up democracies in another country halfway across the globe,” Childs continued. “Only to come back and now have to defend against a different faction of religious extremists in my own backyard.”

However, their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Lawmakers quickly passed the bill out of the committee process. The House is expected to debate the bill on Jan. 16.