Reeves, who’s operating for reelection this 12 months, mentioned “radical activists” are telling kids they’re within the fallacious our bodies and are “only a surgical procedure away from happiness.”

“That is really scary stuff that is being pushed upon our children and, sure, their loving dad and mom,” Reeves mentioned. “They’re being taken benefit of, all so some can push their warped view on gender or seem like ‘woke’ for his or her mates.”

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The brand new Mississippi regulation took impact instantly. In 2021, Reeves signed a regulation to ban transgender athletes from competing in ladies’ or ladies’s sports activities groups.

The Republican governors of South Dakota and Utah have signed bans on gender-affirming care this 12 months, and the Republican governor of Tennessee is anticipated to take action. Judges have briefly blocked comparable legal guidelines in Arkansas and Alabama.

Reeves signed the Mississippi invoice into regulation lower than two weeks after transgender youngsters, their households and others who assist them protested towards the measure.

Throughout the U.S. this 12 months, at the very least 150 payments focusing on transgender individuals have been launched, which is the very best in a single 12 months, based on the Human Rights Marketing campaign.

Mickie Stratos — who’s president of The Spectrum Heart of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which supplies well being companies and advocacy for LGBTQ individuals — mentioned Reeves’ choice to signal the invoice “is an act of violence.”

“He and the lawmakers who pushed this invoice in Mississippi are willfully ignoring the distinctive wants of transgender younger individuals, interfering with their medical care and sending a stigmatizing, exclusionary message,” Stratos mentioned in an announcement Tuesday.