SANTA FE, NM – Today, Independent Women unveils a groundbreaking report, “Identity Crisis: The Disjointed Reality in New Mexico.” The report is part of the organization’s multi-faceted state sunlight project designed to highlight how New Mexico policies clash with public opinion and are actively undermining parental rights and harming children. New Mexican elected officials are pushing radical gender ideology on minors—saying that they can change sexes, encouraging drugs and surgery in the service of this lie, and leading them to irreversible physical and psychological consequences. 

Recent polling confirms that the overwhelming majority of New Mexicans believe children should not be allowed to “transition” minors without parental consent. But the state is exploiting misinformation about what “transition” actually entails, keeping the public in the dark. 

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HB 7, the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Healthcare Act, passed by the New Mexico state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2023, allows public bodies—including schools—to protect access to “gender-affirming healthcare,” including social, hormonal, and surgical “transition.” The act further penalizes non-compliant bodies with a $5,000 fine, or “actual damages resulting from each violation, whichever is greater.”

According to Independent Women polling, the public has very little awareness that HB 7 is even in place, with only 15% of New Mexicans saying they are very familiar with the law and 54% having never heard of it. The “Identity Crisis: The Disjointed Reality in New Mexico” report aims to inform the public that laws like HB 7 and even more radical policies in school districts across the state exist and  are in opposition to the values and beliefs of the majority. 

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of New Mexicans disagree with the statement, “Teachers and school nurses should be able to ‘transition children’ without their parents knowing,” and seventy-seven (77%) of New Mexicans answered “concerned” when told that, “New Mexico laws fast-track children under 18 to life-long transgender-related medical treatments without their parents’ concern.”

Statistics show that 98% of children who are socially transitioned persist in identifying as transgender. In this case, the difference between parents knowing about their children’s identity at school and parents not knowing about what’s going on can be the difference between a child being able to form her identity without pressure and a child being fast-tracked to lifelong medicalization. 

HB 7 goes a step further to also protect access to hormonal and surgical “transition” including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-trait modification procedures, which have long-term health risks up to and including lifelong sterility and loss of sexual function.

In addition to releasing “Identity Crisis: The Disjointed Reality in New Mexico,” Independent Women today launched the New Mexico Voices chapter in Las Cruces, dedicated to uniting more New Mexicans in order to turn the state around. 

Independent Women Features (IW Features)—Independent Women’s grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm—has been highlighting the irreversible harms of gender ideology on minors through the “Identity Crisis” series. See the firsthand accounts of the long term impacts of gender transition below:

See more of Independent Women’s work in New Mexico below:

“Identity Crisis: The Disjointed Reality in New Mexico”

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