Thread

California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

83 points · 136 comments · dabinat

GeekyBear · 1790826103 · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
1. john_strinlai · 1790826457 · focus · HN ↗
  >but old enough to decide that they want to have sex change surgery.
  an under-18 can not unilaterally decide to get sex change surgery in california.
  1. GeekyBear · 1790827512 · focus · HN ↗
    How about puberty blockers?
    Should people who are still legally defined as children be allowed to make a decision on those?
    john_strinlai · 1790827674 · focus · HN ↗
    >How about puberty blockers?
    an under-18 can not unilaterally decide to go on puberty blockers either.
    GeekyBear · 1790828654 · focus · HN ↗
    If a parent can't give consent for marriage, they shouldn't be able to consent to gender-affirming care, right?
    > The California Department of Health Care Services, a branch of Newsom’s administration, said Friday that state dollars will be used to reimburse providers of gender-affirming care for youth covered by Medi-Cal, the state version of Medicaid...
    Gender-affirming care includes medical treatments that help align a person’s physical characteristics with their gender identity. Care typically begins with therapy and may progress to puberty-blocking medicine and hormone treatments, and in rare cases for adolescents, surgeries.
    <a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/09/29/california-to-fund-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth-on-medi-cal/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/09/29/california-to-fund-...
    zzrrt · 1790829874 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm not fully on-board with trans ideas, but here's a stab at an argument: Marriage is not, I don't know, "romance-affirming care." That's the difference. It is not considered critical to a young person's identity to be married, while gender-affirming care is.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.