Editor’s note •This article discusses suicide. If you or people you know are at risk of self-harm, call or text 988 to reachthe Suicide & Crisis Lifelinefor 24-hour support. You can also reachThe Trevor Project, which specializes in helping LGBTQ+ youth, by calling 1-866-488-7386, or by texting “START” to 678-678.
Utah’s supermajority-Republican Legislature is expected to pass a permanent ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. But ahead of that, a Senate committee voted Wednesday to lengthen the amount of time minors already receiving such treatments can continue that care.
The state currently has a “moratorium” on gender-affirming care for teenagers and children, which prohibits surgically changing a transgender minor’s sex characteristics and bars prescribing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy to Utahns under 18 who were not diagnosed with gender dysphoria prior to the 2023 law.
This year’s HB174 from Rep. Rex Shipp, R-Cedar City, would impose more permanent restrictions on transgender youth access to hormone therapy, but minors already receiving that care can continue until 2028 under the committee’s amendment. The cutoff in the original bill was 2027.
“If parents and their children made a decision when the child was 13, I’m not comfortable cutting off that care for a few months or even a year until they turn 18, so that’s why I brought the amendment,” said Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross. “But I also support the ban because I do believe that these are decisions that are best made by an adult.”
The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee voted 7-1 to adopt Weiler’s amendment, before ultimately voting along party lines to send it to the full Senate.
Shipp opposed the change, saying his bill already included a one-year runway “to allow the time for these kids that are on them to taper off.”
“I think we’re always going to run into the same issue that you’re trying to avoid, because there’s going to be others that will be on the treatments in 2028,” Shipp told the committee. “So I just don’t want to agree to continue to damage healthy bodies.”
It’s unclear whether this modification, or any others made while the Senate has the bill, will stick. The bill has to return to the House of Representatives for approval of any changes before its passage.
Weiler, who chairs the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee, was one of a few Senate Republicans to vote “nay” on the gender-affirming care moratorium in 2023.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, speaks while chairing the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
When he began accepting public comments on Shipp’s bill Wednesday, Weiler said, “If you are someone who received gender affirming care as a minor, I want you to raise your hands. … I am personally most interested in hearing from those in the room who actually received the care as children.”
Five people raised their hands. All of them spoke against the bill, with multiple testifying that it saved their life.
Among them was a student from Centerville Junior High School, who said they came out as transgender in third grade, or 2019, began puberty blockers in 2022 and started hormone replacement therapy in 2024.
“Without access to his medication, I would not be here speaking to you today,” they said. “If you were truly wanting to protect us, you would worry about the worst effect of not getting the resources we need: suicide. … How would I know this? One of my closest friends committed suicide back in October of 2025. There were many reasons for her suicide. One of the major ones was her lack of health care and the hate she gets from the world.”
Shipp’s proposal is one of several pieces of legislation this session that would further restrict transgender rights in Utah, likely making 2026 the fifth consecutive year lawmakers adopt anti-transgender laws.
And HB174 follows a medical evidence review commissioned under the 2023 bill that concluded gender-affirming care for minors with gender dysphoria is largely found to result in positive outcomes and reduce the likelihood of suicide.
The University of Utah researchers who compiled that report, and officials from the state’s health agency who prepared policy recommendations based on it, have not been invited to speak at the Capitol about it. Instead, lawmakers have largely relied on the advice of conservative, anti-transgender activists in passing additional restrictions.
