Utah Gov. Cox signed HB157 barring a parent's stance on a child's gender identity as a custody or removal factor

On March 14, 2024, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed House Bill 157, "Child Custody Factor Amendments," into law. The measure amends Utah Code Section 30-3-10 to prohibit a court, in awarding custody or parent-time in a divorce or other family-law proceeding, from considering as a factor a parent's agreement or disagreement with a minor child's assertion of or expressed gender identity. It separately amends Utah Code Section 80-2a-202 to provide that a peace officer or a Division of Child and Family Services caseworker may not remove a child from the custody of the child's parent or guardian solely on the basis of that same agreement or disagreement.

Chief sponsor Rep. Stephanie Gricius carried the bill through the 2024 General Session, with Sen. Michael Kennedy as floor sponsor. It passed the House 73-0, passed the Senate 16-7 on third reading, and the House concurred in the Senate amendments 63-0 before the bill was enrolled and sent to the governor, who signed it on March 14, 2024.

The statute writes a parent's response to a child's gender identity directly into Utah's custody and child-removal framework, foreclosing courts and child-welfare officials from weighing that response even where a parent's rejection of a transgender child's identity bears on the child's welfare. HB157 was the earliest of several Utah measures sponsored by Rep. Gricius using near-identical language on parental agreement or disagreement with a child's gender identity, later carried forward in the 2025 bills HB269 and HB283.