Missouri family moves out of state following new anti-LGBTQ laws

JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — Just days after Governor Mike Parson signed legislation into law targeting transgender athletes and minors, a Missouri family was invited to a Pride Month celebration at the White House.

Later this summer, Missouri will officially join a handful of other states in banning gender-affirming sponsorships for minors and banning transgender girls and women from playing on women’s sports teams. Because of these two laws, a central Missouri family packs up, sells their home, and moves west.

“We chose Colorado because it is one of the few states that has dedicated protections to LGBT people and their children,” Katherine Sasser said Wednesday. “Exercise is a challenge to lose that, and it would be devastating for her, but when you talk about not being able to get medical care, it’s a life-or-death situation.”

In the coming weeks, Sasser and her family will be moving from Missouri due to recent legislation signed by the governor, which prevents her daughter or 11-year-old from receiving the gender-affirming care she needs.

“She has not performed any medical interventions yet, so she will not be subject to the grandfather clause in this law,” Sasser said. “She gets counseling because this is a very slow, deliberate process that families go through to determine what kind of care a trans child needs, but she won’t be found because she doesn’t get any kind of medical intervention.”

The law states that transgender minors receiving care when the law goes into effect can continue to receive gender confirmation care and can continue this process.

Another bill that the governor signed last week would ban the O from playing on girls’ sports teams.

“With the sports ban, my daughter who started middle school will be excluded from the places she used to participate in,” Sasser said. “We want to make sure our kids can be safe and make sure they get the opportunities they want to play on a sports team that they enjoy.”

Over the weekend, just days after the governor signed the legislation into law, Sasser, her partner, and her three children were invited to the White House for Pride Month. The Sasser family is surrounded by hundreds of other LGBTQ families from all over the country.

“For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have to worry about my family, I didn’t have to think about who was there or what they think of us,” Sasser said. “I definitely haven’t felt this way in Missouri in the last year at all, if not longer.”

During his speech, President Joe Biden told the crowd: “You are loved. Heard. You are understood. And you belong.”

“At that moment, my daughter and I were filled with tears upon hearing this message from the president,” Sasser said.

It was then when Biden got off the stage and walked over to Sasser’s daughter, OR.

“They had this kind of moment where they just knelt their heads together and talked to each other and it was a real, genuine concern and care that the president had for my daughter,” Sasser said. “It was really a cathartic moment of healing.”

Sasser says it was a moment of peace for her family, after experiencing one of her worst moments just days before.

“I promise I would never want to do anything to hurt my child, I promise you she was adamant about who she was from a young age, and if you can hear a little bit of our story you will probably understand that we are just families trying to make it work, like all of you,” Sasser said.

At least 20 states, including Missouri, have enacted laws restricting or prohibiting sex confirmation care for minors.

By August, Sasser says her family will be living in Colorado, and her kids will be ready to start classes at their new schools.

“I think she is [O] She understands that the world telling her she isn’t right or she shouldn’t exist or she shouldn’t be able to participate in is not the world she wants to live in anymore,” Sasser said. “I think she’s sad to leave but I also think she looks forward to being Somewhere you don’t have to worry about those things anymore.”

Last month, Sasser resigned from her position on the Columbia Public Schools board of directors after serving two years out of a three-year term. She said she had to resign in order to get her family out of the country.

“I felt a huge responsibility to finish my term,” Sasser said, “and that was part of the conversation we had about whether or not we were going to transition.” “I felt like I needed to stay in this seat for three years but in the end, I had to step down.”

Under the law restricting transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers or hormonal therapy, the ban also affects adults on Medicaid by not allowing coverage of any gender-affirming care and surgery will not be available to prisoners and inmates.

According to the legislation, physicians who violate the law and treat patients may be subject to the potential loss of their license and civil liability.

Both bills will go into effect on August 28.