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Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly announced running mate — Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — signed a bill in April of 2023 allowing the state to make custody determinations if a child is denied access to sex-change procedures.

The “Trans Refuge Bill” allows for “temporary emergency jurisdiction” if a parent denies their child sex-change procedures, according to the bill’s text. The bill defines the interventions, which include sex-changes, hormone replacement and cosmetic surgeries, as “medically necessary” so long as it “respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined” by the child.

“Freedom is on the march in Minnesota. Decency is on the march on in Minnesota. Compassion is on the march in Minnesota,” Walz said at a bill signing ceremony. “Hate and bigotry too are on the march. But we make very clear that march of bigotry and hate stops at Minnesota’s borders.”

After former President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race on July 21, Harris quickly became the presumptive nominee with the endorsement of many prominent party leaders. Harris went on to select Walz as her running mate on Tuesday less than 100 days out from the November election.

The bill amends “child custody and child welfare provisions” pertaining to out-of-state laws that would interfere with Minnesota’s “gender-affirming health care” laws.

Minnesota’s bill provided a loophole allowing individuals, including children, from other states to receive transgender treatments and asserted that out-of-state provisions “interfering” with access to these procedures “must not be enforced or applied within the state.” At the same time, Minnesota law gives the state “temporary emergency jurisdiction” to make a custody determination if the child “has been unable to obtain” these transgender treatments.

The bill defined transgender treatments for children as “medically necessary” physical health care or mental health care that “respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient.” This includes interventions that “suppress” the development of their biological sex like hormone therapy, procedures that “align” the patient’s physical body with their “gender identity” through cosmetic surgeries and sex-change surgeries.

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Democratic state Rep. Leigh Finke, Minnesota’s first openly transgender lawmaker, applauded the bill for being on the “right side of history” and praised the legislation for being part of his “beautifully weird, eclectic, and fabulous queer agenda,” according to a press release.

“Our beautifully weird, eclectic, and fabulous queer agenda is to continue to show up in spaces that were designed to shut us out, and we’ll continue to be joyous,” Finke said in the press release. “Our joy is an act of resistance, and we won’t rest until all our liberation efforts succeed.”

Walz’s office did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: YouTube/Screenshot/ FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul)

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