ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Medical professionals in Alaska who offer gender-affirming care to children could face disciplinary actions as a proposal slated for review by the state medical board looming on Friday.
The proposition suggests that professionals administering hormonal and surgical treatments to minors would be considered “grossly negligent,” exposing them to potential board sanctions, as captured in the board’s minutes from a June session.
The specifics of the disciplinary actions remain undefined, and board member Matt Heilala, an Anchorage podiatrist involved in drafting the proposed regulations, chose not to elaborate on the details with The Associated Press prior to the meeting.
This development follows the board’s March letter to state lawmakers, where it expressed opposition to hormonal or surgical gender-affirming treatments for minors and urged the enactment of restrictions. However, the Legislature—governed by bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate—did not address the matter before their May adjournment.
Critics express concern that the board might be exceeding its authority by pursuing regulations that could subject medical providers to potential disciplinary measures. They argue that, rather than allowing the legislative process to unfold, the board is effectively acting as legislators, which they deem inappropriate, as highlighted by state Sen. Löki Tobin, a Democrat advocating for the LGBTQ+ community.
During its June meeting, the medical board appointed member Heilala to assist in drafting a statement for consideration, aimed at categorizing those providing such care as “grossly negligent and therefore subject to disciplinary sanctions,” according to the meeting’s minutes.
Heilala declined to discuss the specific language stemming from that directive that the board would consider Friday but told the AP that the proposed rules would go through a deliberate and transparent process for the public. Such processes can take months, he said.
Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It encompasses counseling, medications that block puberty and hormone therapy to produce physical changes as well as surgeries to transform chests and genitals, though those are rare for minors.
Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum. While there’s wide, if not universal, medical consensus, the political situation is contentious.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had issued an order allowing the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse. But a Texas judge in 2022 blocked the state from investigating families of transgender youths who have received such care and members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. over such medical care.
Tom Pittman, executive director of Identity Inc., an Anchorage-based advocacy and health care organization for the LGBTQ+ community, said about 500 Alaska medical professionals have signed an open letter opposing the changes being considered by the board.
The letter campaign organized by Pittman’s group said gender-affirming care for adolescents, when provided in partnership with families, is evidence-based medicine.
“Labeling it ‘negligence’ is not a medical conclusion. It is a political act with devastating consequences: punishing clinicians, undermining parents, and denying young people lifesaving treatment,” the letter states.
Fewer than 100 youth are receiving such gender-affirming care, Pittman said.
Pittman called Heilala’s actions politically motivated, saying he “has co-opted Alaska’s medical board and institution to launch a bid for governorship, and he’s using scapegoating and discrimination against what is a very small vulnerable population of Alaskans to create a bully pulpit for himself.”
Heilala is one of at least eight Republicans to announce plans to run for governor next year. But he said this is an issue the board has been working on for some time and “has nothing to do with my running at all.”
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Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
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