BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) — Out of the 319 vetoes Governor John Bel Edwards (D-La.) has issued during his tenure, only two have ever been overturned, with the latest happening on Tuesday, July 18.

House Bill 648, to ban gender-affirming care for anyone under 18, was originally vetoed by Edwards but is now going to become law, leaving some state representatives shocked.

“Like I said on the floor like this, I can’t imagine what my trans friends have to feel like every day to go into a building where there’s so much stress and strain,” State Rep. Mandie Landry said.

One surprising aspect of this overturning was the approval of seven democratic representatives in the house, which was the turning point in this vote.

“Of course the republicans vast majority are in favor of it, but those conservative democrats on social issues gave them the margin to be able to get it overridden in the legislature today,” political analyst Jeff Crouere said.

Now that the bill is set to become law, many supporters of the LGBTQ community are worried for the children who are likely to be affected.

“I’m worried that it’s going to be negatively impacted because they’re going to start maybe panicking about what to do next about how can they travel to different places to get this healthcare,” PFLAG Alexandria board member Remi Tallo said.

If republicans are able to secure the governor’s seat during the upcoming election, experts say similar bills like bill 648 are likely to appear.

“So I think, if the republicans take control of the governor’s mansion, they’ll still have a supermajority probably in the house and senate, so you’re going to see more bills such as this next year,” Crouere said.

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