SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

State senator: Law allowing teens to change gender without parental consent is ‘insane’

Jan 12, 2022, 2:25 PM | Updated: Jan 13, 2022, 6:17 am

gender...

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Young people in Washington state can’t legally buy cigarettes or vaping products until they’re 21 years old – but teens as young as 13 can now pursue gender reassignment medical procedures now that a Democrat-backed law has taken effect.

Rantz: WA laws now allow teen gender reassignment surgery without parental consent

This is “crazy stuff,” state Sen. Phil Fortunato (R-Auburn) told Dori Monson Show listeners.

Increasingly, Fortunato says, Democratic state legislators are cutting parents out of their children’s lives.

The senator came on Dori’s show shortly after he was escorted out of the state legislative building for failure to produce a negative COVID test. Fortunato calls his removal from his office building “unconstitutional.”

He also cites what he considers contradictions between gender change laws and smoking/vaping age restrictions as “madness.”

In 2020, Washington state moved the legal purchase of smoking and vaping products from 18 to 21 years – “because 18-year-olds aren’t smart enough to make medical decisions,” Fortunato said.

And yet, he continued, this new 2022 law allows children as young as 13 to begin the process for gender reassignment surgery without parental approval.

Equally frustrating for the senator: “Insurance companies cannot deny the treatment,” so even if parents “don’t have to be consulted, … parents are winding up paying for it.”

“If … the 50s were the patriotic period, and the 60s were the ‘free love’ period, and the 2000s were the confused period, then from 2010 on it is the insane period,” Fortunato said.

“This is crazy stuff and it just keeps going,” he told Dori’s listeners. “People don’t understand the consequences of giving the Democrats the large majority in the House and the Senate. They can do whatever the heck they want. I mean, this is madness.”

Listen to Dori’s interview with state Sen. Phil Fortunato below:

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Monday, Nov...

Associated Press

Analysts weigh how Democrats’ midterm wins could shift Trump’s Latin America policy

MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s impact on Latin America in the last two years has been enormous, from immigration and deportations to boat strikes that have killed hundreds to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Now analysts are trying to get a read on whether the sweeping wins by Democrats in […]

3 hours ago

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin walks to do a television interview at the White House,...

Associated Press

Immigration arrests go on unabated despite Trump’s misgivings after the GOP’s midterm wipeout

It’s business as usual for President Donald Trump’s deportation offensive despite the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections. In Los Angeles, masked immigration officers in body armor blocked a hospital emergency room driveway in a heavily Latino neighborhood early Saturday. In central Alabama, twin 19-year-old brothers from Venezuela were arrested while driving back to college […]

4 hours ago

FILE -President Donald Trump, right, presents the National Medal of Science to Nvidia CEO Jensen Hu...

Associated Press

How Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s extramarital affair could cause collateral damage in Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — Extramarital affairs are usually private matters. Jensen Huang’s has global implications. The 63-year-old is the leading face of the artificial intelligence revolution with his black leather jackets and fluff of grey hair. He runs the company Nvidia, which produces highly coveted computer chips. That’s landed him on a late-night-phone-call basis with President […]

4 hours ago

FILE - The SS United States is towed down the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, f...

Associated Press

This ocean liner was the world’s fastest. It’s being sunk to make the largest artificial reef

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — An ocean liner that is longer than the Titanic and was once the fastest on the seas is headed to a final home on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico as the world’s largest artificial reef. The S.S. United States is scheduled to be sunk Wednesday off the coast of […]

4 hours ago

The screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate betwee...

Associated Press

Asian markets mostly gain on AI chip demand despite Wall Street’s retreat on inflation data

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday, following a retreat on Wall Street as U.S. inflation rose higher than expected in October, while U.S. futures edged higher and oil prices rose. Taiwan led the regional markets as its benchmark’s Taiex rose 3.6%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, climbed 3.1% after the […]

4 hours ago

power outage...

MyNorthwest Staff

Power restored in Capitol Hill

Power has been restored in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

5 hours ago

State senator: Law allowing teens to change gender without parental consent is ‘insane’