‘It’s just devastating:’ Transgender man reacts to HB1570 passage

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KAIT) - House Bill 1570, or the Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act, will be put on the Governor’s desk for him to sign or veto.

The bill is one of the multiple bills focused on transgender rights, and it’s a bill that has the state talking.

HB1570 would ban gender transition procedures for those under the age of 18.

“For these things to be taken away from these kids it’s just devastating,” West Memphis native Dean Mosley said. “I feel like the government is saying like ‘kill yourself. We would rather you do that than exist inside of our state.’”

When Mosley saw the bill pass, he had one thought.

“Immediately I was thinking like the suicide rates, or attempts anyway, are going to go up for LGBT’s, especially trans youth,” Mosley said.

Dean mentioned his own experience as a transgender man as the reason him being against the bill.

“I knew I did not like the more feminine body I was getting and it was making me very depressed,” Mosley said. “It was causing me a lot of anxiety.”

Mosley said for those who feel exactly like he did, taking hormone blockers and hormone therapy away would do more harm than good.

“For those things to be taken away from them, like, I can only imagine how devastating it must be,” Mosley said.

For Mosley, it’s not just this bill he feels devastated about, it’s also the bill banning transgender women from competing in school sports with their gender identity.

A former Rugby player at Arkansas State University, Dean is frustrated because he feels transgender people are being targeted.

“It does seem like it’s a target,” Mosley said. “The United States is progressing into this beautiful, multiracial, antiracist world, and Arkansas and other states like it are just like, content on just staying inside the past and just not letting people who are different express their differences out in public.”

Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked about HB1570 at his news conference today. He said he has multiple meetings in the next few days where he will listen to their viewpoints.

“I want to know as much as I can so I can answer questions in regards to that,” Gov. Hutchinson said. “I have some time to make a decision on whether to sign it or take other action on it. I’ve got a number of appointments in which I’m listening to people and meeting with them to learn more about it and hear their views. So, I will be doing that in the next couple of days.”

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