Utah’s transgender community will again receive attention from the Legislature in the upcoming session that starts Jan. 20.
There are a handful of bills at this point. One would replace the term gender with the term sex in Utah provisions and rules, prohibit changes to birth certificates and potentially affect child custody cases. Another would protect state employees who, due to religious or other personal beliefs, refuse to call someone by their chosen name or pronouns. And two more are focused on transgender medical treatments, including a ban on public funds for treatments — and changes to Utah’s 2023 gender-affirming care ban.
The ban, passed three years ago, prohibited medical procedures for minors, imposed regulations on youth receiving hormone treatment, called for a medical review of the practice by the Department of Health and Human Services and required medical professionals who administer such treatment to receive proper education and training.
The ban also included an allowance for those with a gender dysphoria diagnosis before the law became effective to continue receiving their medications.
A bill from Republican Rep. Rex Shipp, HB174, would eliminate those provisions.
Over two years, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services reviewed gender‑affirming care practices and research to develop guidelines for the state on medical transitions for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone treatments. The analysis ran more than 1,000 pages and nine pediatric medical professionals reviewed it. It examined data from more than 28,000 cases of young transgender people from around the world and used that to design a framework for Utah to administer gender‑affirming care to those who qualified.
Shipp believes it is biased.
“The members of the committee were only those that had been treating these kids with affirming care,” he said, describing the report as “just a compilation of opinions.”
Part of his research for his bill involved consulting with Do No Harm, a medical think tank that opposes “youth‑focused gender ideology.” A 12‑page report they released in December 2025 claimed to debunk the state’s review and conclusions. A disclaimer on their website, however, states that the information available through their site “should not be interpreted as medical or professional advice.”
Shipp’s bill would require Utah kids taking medication such as hormone replacements or puberty blockers to be weaned off over six months unless they are at least 17 years of age and have been taking such medication for a minimum of two years.
Shipp acknowledges gender dysphoria as a mental health issue and said that’s why he’s concerned about any physical damage done to patients who are on these medications.
“And so why do we want to continue to damage kids that have a mental health condition?” he asked. “We want to protect them and taper them off.”
Collin Kuhn, a clinical child and adolescent psychologist based in Salt Lake City, is frustrated that Utah lawmakers are revisiting something they believe was solved.
“We followed everything they asked us to in that law,” Kuhn said, who advised on the transgender treatment certification for health care providers required in the 2023 ban law.
Kuhn disputes Shipp’s claims that puberty blockers cause long‑term physical damage. They explained that the motivation for prescribing the medication is not necessarily to change a child’s body. If a minor who is about to go through puberty is male‑bodied, Kuhn explained, puberty blockers can delay permanent changes like their voice dropping.
“We basically want to hit the pause button,” they said. “We want to give them time so that they can work with a therapist and really try to explore their gender.”
The Utah review concluded that “the treatments are safe in terms of changes to bone density, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic changes, and cancer.” It also said “the consensus of the evidence supports that the treatments are effective in terms of mental health [and] psychosocial outcomes.”
A 2024 survey from the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth, found that around one in seven transgender young people had attempted suicide, while 46% said they had seriously considered it. Three in five reported experiencing depression. But outcomes are better among those who receive gender‑affirming care.
Knowing how many people in the U.S. identify as transgender is a difficult question to answer, especially at the state level. Nationally, 2022 numbers from the Pew Research Center suggest that 2% of young adults ages 18-29 identify as transgender. It would be a safe assumption in Utah that youths who are actively undergoing hormone treatment represent an even smaller number. But according to Kuhn, even that small number of kids impacted by Shipp’s bill will be harmed, particularly when it comes to their mental health.
“I have had male‑bodied kids who have taken knives or scissors and have tried to damage themselves,” they said. “That’s what we’re talking about if we stop blockers.”
According to Kuhn, because of well‑documented discrimination, mental health issues, and increased rates of self‑harm within the community, most parents they encounter — while they support and love their child — would never wish for them to be transgender in today’s current climate.
