Washington and California both have bills wending their way through their respective legislatures that would shut a child’s parents out of the decision-making, even the knowledge that the decision-making is in progress, associated with the application of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and breast and genital removal, and other “treatments”—cynically called gender affirming care—to their children.

Washington is on the verge of denying parents notice that their runaway children are living in licensed shelters if the children are seeking “protected health care services,” defined as gender affirming care and “reproductive health care” such as abortion and contraception.

And

The California Assembly approved legislation this month…that would let children 12 and up in the Medi-Cal program “consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to residential shelter services,” if the “attending professional person” believes they are “mature enough to participate intelligently” in the services. Legal experts told the Associated Press that would cover gender identity counseling.

Were an individual adult to do this to a child, he’d be guilty of child sexual abuse and metaphorically drawn and quartered, and rightly so. But when an institution does it, it’s OK.

Go figure. And then go figure why any parents would want to risk their children by living in such a State.