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Yesterday, the West Virginia House of Delegates approved an amendment from Del. J.B. Akers ® to allow a child’s “treating health care provider” to examine a child’s genitals without the consent of their parents.

The amendment was actually an improvement over a previous version of the bill, which, state Democrats argued, would have allowed teachers to perform the genital examinations.

Akers’ amendment was the Republican response to one proposed by Del. Kayla Young (D), which would have banned child and adult genital examinations altogether.

“It’s unconscionable that Republicans would support legislation that authorizes intrusive visual inspections of minors without parental approval,” Young said. “West Virginians should be alarmed and disgusted by this invasion of privacy.”

It also says that all intersex people are “either male or female” but does not give a basis for assigning a sex to them.

  • khannie@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    This is stupid as fuck, right, but who doesn’t accompany their child into the doctor’s office?

    Like there are no circumstances under which I’m leaving my child alone with an adult who may examine their genitals and having had child safety training myself just being alone with a child that isn’t yours is a terrible idea altogether.

    • Caedarai@reddthat.com
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      6 hours ago

      I think part if the motivation here would be to allow the doctor present at a school to determine whether a child is participating in the correct sex-appropriate placement. Like using the correct locker rooms or bathrooms in case teachers or other students bring up an issue (for example if a boy were to go into a girl’s locker room and claim to really be a girl). Since appearance doesn’t line up with sex in many cases nowadays, the inspection would be to determine the real sex of the individual. Some school activities will involve nudity (changing before entering a swimming pool, communal showering after a sports match or gym class, etc.) so the authors of this were initially pushing for any teacher (such as the supervisor in a locker room or the teacher of the associated class) to be able to inspect/determine the sex of the individual.

    • NotLemming@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      So… under no circumstances are they going to bring doctors into schools to perform these inspections?

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        ‘Doctors’ like someone who passed med school, flunked out of residency and couldn’t land a practicing job anywhere they were so god awful.

        But they are a doctor!

      • khannie@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        I suppose that hadn’t occurred to me because I live in a country where, if that were to happen, I couldn’t imagine the level of social unrest it would cause.

        It’s just beyond reason.