U.K. to Perform Mental Health Evaluations on Children with Gender Dysphoria

Transgender, ,

The U.K.’s National Health Services reportedly will start advising clinics to assess children who identify as transgender for mental health problems and other conditions.

The new guidelines come in the wake of the U.K.’s decision to shutter its transgender clinic in 2022 and stop giving puberty blockers to children last year.

A government investigation revealed healthcare professionals at the NHS’s Tavistock gender clinic pressured families into subjecting their children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

Since then, medical professionals have written extensively about the harm that these gender-reassignment procedures caused.

Under the new NHS guidelines, children in the U.K. with gender dysphoria would be assessed for ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, or mental health problems. These assessments could help identify underlying causes of a child’s gender dysphoria.

All of this underscores why it is so important that lawmakers in Arkansas overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act in 2021.

The SAFE Act is a good law that prevents doctors in Arkansas from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Since then, reports from Europe and elsewhere have shown time and again that Arkansas was right to pass the SAFE Act.

Unfortunately, the SAFE Act has been tied up in court since 2021. However, we believe our courts ultimately will recognize that the SAFE Act is a good law and uphold it as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Full Court Press: Mid Vermont Christian School Asks for Religious Freedom Protections

LGBT, Religious Freedom, , ,

A private school in Vermont is asking a federal court to stop the state’s athletic association from penalizing the school after the school’s girls’ basketball team forfeited a game against a team with a male athlete who identifies as a female.

The following is from our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom regarding the case:

Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) was punished by Vermont officials after it chose not to violate its beliefs.

Read more: https://adflegal.org/article/vermont-…

Coach Chris Goodwin and the MVCS girls’ basketball team decided to forfeit a game rather than force its girls to play against a team with a male. MVCS believes that God uniquely created everyone either male or female with distinct characteristics and that sex cannot be changed, so participation would propagate a lie. Facilitating a girls’ basketball game in which a male plays would have forced MVCS to violate its beliefs.

But the Vermont Principals Association (VPA), Vermont’s state sports association, punished MVCS by barring it from participating in all VPA sports and activities, not just girls’ basketball. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of MVCS challenging Vermont’s religious discrimination.

After a federal district court’s unfavorable ruling, ADF appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. We presented oral argument before the 2nd Circuit on April 9, 2025.

Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders case details: https://adflegal.org/case/mid-vermont…

Stories like this one are part of the reason Arkansas passed Act 461 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) in 2021 to prevent male student athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.

We have written time and again about how women’s athletics is at risk of being erased in America.

Female cyclists, swimmers, powerlifters, sprinters, volleyball players, and others have seen their sports radically changed by men who claim to be women.

Letting men compete in women’s sports is unfair. It reverses 50 years of advancements for women, and in some cases it can even be dangerous.

Earlier this year President Trump signed an executive order that helps protects women and girls from being forced to compete against men. It also protects women’s right to privacy in locker rooms, showers, changing areas, and similar facilities, and it directs federal officials to withdraw funding from educational programs that “deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”

We appreciate our policymakers who work hard to protect fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas and across the country, and we appreciate our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom who are standing up for women and girls in federal court.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Governor Signs Physical Privacy Protection Law

Legislation, , ,

 On Monday Governor Sarah Sanders signed a law to protect physical privacy and safety in Arkansas.

S.B. 486 by Sen. Blake Johnson (R — Corning) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R — Perryville) protects physical privacy and safety of Arkansans in showers, locker rooms, changing rooms, restrooms, and sleeping quarters in government buildings and in state and local jails.

The law also applies to changing rooms, restrooms, and sleeping quarters in shelters for victims of domestic violence.

The law will require the facilities named in it to be designated for “male” or “female” use. The measure generally requires people to use the facility that corresponds to their biological sex.

In a statement, Governor Sanders said,

As a woman and a mom to a girl athlete, I was proud to make Arkansas law clear: men are men and women are women. It’s sad that some people don’t accept this basic fact.

Arkansas will always stand up for girl’s safety and common sense.

With the governor’s signature, S.B. 486 is now Act 955 of 2025.

Act 955 is similar to a law Arkansas passed in 2023 to protect privacy in public schools and on overnight school trips. Over the years, we have seen efforts to house men with women in jails, let men stay in women’s shelters, and give men access to women’s changing areas, locker rooms, showers, and restrooms.

Act 955 is common sense legislation narrowly tailored to protect physical privacy and safety in public buildings and shelters in Arkansas.

We want to recognize Sen. Johnson and Rep. Bentley for working so hard to sponsor this Act 955, and we want to thank the General Assembly for passing it and the governor for signing it. This is a good law that Arkansans can celebrate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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