Paris Hilton backs California bill to bring more transparency to youth treatment facilities

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Paris Hilton joined California state lawmakers Monday to push for legislation aimed at cracking down on the industry that cares for troubled teens by requiring more transparency from youth treatment facilities.

The bill supported by the Hilton Hotel heiress and media personality aims to pry open information on how short-term residential facilities for youth dealing with substance abuse and behavioral issues use disciplinary methods such as restraints or seclusion against minors. It would require such centers to notify parents and the state any time they use restrains or seclusion rooms for minors. It’s authored by Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove and Democratic state Sens. Aisha Wahab and Angelique Ashby.

On Monday, Hilton testified in a legislative hearing in support of the bill, detailing her harrowing abuse as a teenager at a facility in Utah that she said still haunts her and urging lawmakers to take actions before more children have to suffer similar treatment.

“Our current system designed to reform, in some horrific instances, does the exact opposite,” Hilton told lawmakers Monday. “It breaks spirits and instills fear, and it perpetuates a cycle of abuse. But today, we have the power to change that.”

The California bill passed committee with bipartisan support on Monday. Under the bill, facilities would have to report details such as what disciplinary actions were taken, why and who had approved the plan. The state department regulating the facilities also would be required to make public the reports and update the database on the quarterly basis. It would not ban the use of such practices.

Hilton has become a prominent advocate for more oversight and regulation of teen treatment centers after publicly sharing the physical and mental abuse she suffered as a teenager. She alleged staff members would beat her, force her to take unknown pills, watch her shower and send her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment.

In 2021, her testimony about her experience at Utah’s Provo Canyon School helped pass a bill to impose stricter oversight over youth treatment centers in the state. Hilton has also traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for federal reforms and helped changed laws to protect minors in at least eight states. Earlier this month, she spoke in support of boys sent to a private school for troubled teens in Jamaica.

Hilton, whose company called 11:11 Media is sponsoring the bill, called the legislation “a game changer” that would shed light on child abuse at youth residential treatments and hold them accountable.

“This would have been so helpful to myself and so many others to have known what was happening behind closed doors,” Paris said in an interview. “Because I was cut off from the outside world, I couldn’t tell my family anything, and that’s what they do.”

Between 2015 and 2020, California sent more than 1,240 children with behavior problems to out-of-state facilities due to the lack of locked treatment centers for youths, according to Sen. Grove’s office. As reports about abuse happening at these programs emerged, including an incident where a 16-year-old boy died after being restrained for about 12 minutes at a Michigan facility, California also found significant licensing violations at these facilities and decided to do away with the program in 2020. Legislation passed in 2021 formally banned the use of out-of-state residential centers. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also authorized $8 million to bring all the minors home by last year.

Minors with behavioral issues are now sent to in-state short-term residential centers, which were created in 2017 to replace group homes. But under current laws, these facilities are not required to share information on how often they use seclusion rooms, restraints, and how many times those methods result in serious injuries or deaths.

Children at these facilities make up one of the most vulnerable populations, including foster youths who have previously been sexually exploited, Grove said.

“It’s a small but critical step to ensure the increased transparency and accountability for California’s children,” she said Monday.

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton, left, watches as state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, presents her proposed bill calling on more transparency for youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, during a hearing of the Senate Human Services Committee in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Aparra Agnihotri, left, takes a selfie with hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. Hilton, who has shared publicly the physical and mental abuse she suffered as a teenager at a boarding school in Utah, urged members of the Senate Human Services Committee to approve proposed bill by state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, for more transparency for youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton discusses her support for a bill calling on more transparency for youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, during an interview in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton, left, and state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield right, listen as supporters speak in support Grove's proposed bill calling on more transparency for youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, during a hearing of the Senate Human Services Committee in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton, center, wipes her eyes as state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Fremont, left, talks in support of a proposed bill calling on more transparency for youth treatment facilities during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. At right is state Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, left, discusses her proposed bill calling on more transparency for youth treatment facilities as hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton, center, listens during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. At right is state Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton, center, discusses a proposed bill calling on more transparency for youth treatment facilities during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton arrives in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. Hilton will appear before a state Senate committee in support of a measure by state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield calling for greater transparency of youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton, left, is greeted by State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield on her arrival in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. Hilton will appear before a state Senate committee in support of Grove's measure calling for greater transparency of youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Hotel heiress and media personalty Paris Hilton,, left, is greeted by State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield on her arrival in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, April 15, 2024. Hilton will appear before a state Senate committee in support of Grove's measure calling for greater transparency of youth treatment facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators moved Monday to enact a ban in Kansas on gender-affirming care for minors and bar state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender youth, brushing aside criticism that they were hurting the state's image.

The GOP-supermajority Kansas House expected to vote on overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto only hours after the Senate did on a 27-13 vote, exactly the required two-thirds margin. The vote in the House was expected to be close after LGBTQ+ rights advocates raised questions about whether the provision against promoting social transitioning is written broadly enough to apply to public school teachers who show empathy for transgender students.

Under the bill, social transitioning includes “the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress,” and the rule would apply to state workers who care for children. The measure doesn’t spell out what constitutes promoting it.

The bill is part of a broader push to roll back transgender rights from Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the U.S. Kansas would be the 25th state to restrict or ban such care for minors, and this week the South Carolina Senate expected to debate a similar measure that already has passed the state House.

“Unfortunately, in today’s society, the predator in particular is a woke health care system,” said Republican state Sen. Mark Steffen, a central Kansas anesthesiologist and pain management specialist.

Like other Republicans across the U.S., Steffen and other GOP lawmakers in Kansas argued that they're protecting children struggling with their gender identities from being pushed into health care that the lawmakers see as experimental and potentially harmful. But that puts them at odds with the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other major U.S. medical groups.

LGBTQ+ rights groups such as Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Kansas have stopped short of saying they would challenge the new law in court, but they've said they believe the provisions preventing state employees from advocating social transitioning violates their free speech rights. They've said that provision makes the Kansas law more sweeping than laws in other states.

Other critics argued that enacting such a ban sends a message that transgender residents aren't welcome. When Kelly vetoed a similar ban last year, she suggested that it would hurt the state's business climate.

“This is not the message we want to send to Americans about the welcoming opportunities that Kansas has,” said state Sen. Tom Holland, a northeastern Kansas Democrat.

About 300,000 youths ages 13 to 17 identify as transgender in the U.S., according to estimates by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research center at UCLA Law. It estimates that in Kansas, about 2,100 youths in that age group identify as transgender.

Republican lawmakers last year enacted laws barring transgender girls and women from female college and K-12 sports teams and ending legal recognition of transgender residents' gender identities. Transgender residents no longer can change the listing for “sex” on their driver's licenses or birth certificates to match their gender identities, something Kelly's administration had allowed.

“I do feel like there’s a genuine fear about me and what my body means, when I’m very happy,” Issac Johnson, who is transgender and just finished a social work internship in Topeka’s public schools, said during a recent Statehouse news conference.

Transgender youth, parents of transgender children and dozens of medical and mental health providers all described gender-affirming care as life-saving and argued that it lessens severe depression and suicidal tendencies among transgender youth. At least 200 health care providers signed a letter to lawmakers opposing a veto override.

During the Senate's debate Monday, Democratic Minority Leader Dinah Sykes' voice wavered as she spoke against the bill and told transgender residents, “We accept you and we cherish you.”

“I urge my colleagues to show grace and kindness,” she said.

But supporters of the bill repeatedly cited the recent decision of the National Health Service of England to stop covering puberty blockers as a routine treatment for gender dysphoria in minors.

NHS England issued a nearly 400-page report from its review, concluding that there is not enough evidence about the long-term effects of gender-affirming care or how well it works. In a foreword, the review’s leader added, “This is an area of remarkably weak evidence.”

Kansas Senate Health Committee Chair Beverly Gossage, a Kansas City-area Republican, told her colleagues: “We’re on the right side of history on this.”

Supporters of the bill also said many of their constituents simply have strong misgivings about medical treatments for children struggling with their gender identities.

The proposed ban would require Kansas to revoke the medical license of any doctor who violates it. It would bar gender-affirming care from being provided on state property or by recipients of state tax dollars.

Kansas' Medicaid program, providing health coverage for poor and disabled residents, also couldn't cover gender-affirming care. On Monday, in a case likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal appeals court ruled that West Virginia and North Carolina’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory.

“The language put in the bill is, in my opinion, is to try to prevent state entities, state employees, from promoting the use of different pronouns and, if you will, the search for gender change,” Republican state Rep. John Eplee, a northeastern Kansas family physician.

Kansas Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, speaks against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Sykes argues that the ban would deny transgender children crucial care that helps lessen severe depression and suicidal tendencies. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, speaks against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Holland suggested that the ban would send a message that Kansas is not welcoming. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Lobbyists Brittany Jones, left, of the conservative group Kansas Family Voice, and Lucrecia Nold, right, of the Kansas Catholic Conference, watch from the Senate's west gallery as members debate overriding a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Both of their organizations support a ban. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Isaac Johnson, who just completed an internship with Topeka's public schools and is finishing work on a social work degree, talks to reporters during a news conference, Thursday, April 26, 2024, in front of a mural at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Johnson, who is transgender, worries about the effects of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which also would bar state employees from promoting social transitioning for youth. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly speaks at a public event, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Kelly has vetoed a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors that also would bar state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender children. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchison, speaks in favor of overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Steffen says the state must protect "confused" children from a "confused health care system and confused parents." (AP Photo/John Hanna)