Don’t Ban Healthcare

 Gender Affirming Healthcare Bans Hurt People

 

Despite compelling scientific evidence to the contrary, Wisconsin Republican Legislators, including our own Senator Duey Strobel (R-Saukville) and GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), have introduced a new bill banning gender affirming care for people under the age of 18. The bill targets medical professionals who provide this kind of care with license removal. 

 

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services offers helpful definitions.

 

“A person who is transgender does not conform with gender norms for their biological sex assigned at birth. These norms include:

• Gender identities
• Expressions
• Behaviors

“Being transgender looks different for everyone. For example, some people might:

• Change their bodies with hormones or surgery. Doing so helps align their physical body with their gender identity.
• Express gender in less permanent ways. This includes through clothing, hair, makeup, pronoun usage, and other behaviors.
• Choose not to alter their external appearance at all.

“Ultimately, transgender people want to be treated with respect. They also want to be treated in a way that aligns with their self-identify.”

“Sexual orientation—the sex of people someone is attracted to. Transgender people may identify as heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian.

“Gender identity—how a person understands their own gender.”

The University of Wisconsin Health Clinic offers comprehensive gender affirming care as do many major healthcare systems serving Wisconsin residents.

 

Republican controlled legislatures across the country continue to put forward bills reducing gender transition services in the face of judicial decisions striking down the bans once they become law. Those who take an oath to support the Constitution should not pass laws that violate the constitutionally protected rights to due process and equal protection of the laws of patients.

 

Democratic legislators and LBGTQI advocacy groups were quick to condemn thislatest GOP intrusion into private medical decisions by parents and children. 

 

The Wisconsin Democratic legislative LBGTQ+ caucus issued the following statement in response to the bill. 

 

“Once again, Republicans are interfering with private medical decisions that belong in the hands of patients and their doctors — not politicians.” 

 

“Every major medical organization – including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Psychological Association – attests that gender-affirming care is safe, medically necessary, and saves lives.

 

“This latest bill demonstrates abject cruelty from Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature. A 2022 national survey by the Trevor Project found that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported negative impacts to their mental health from anti-trans bills.

 

“We remain committed to protecting our LGBTQ+ youth in Wisconsin and will continue to be a voice for the LGBTQ+ community throughout our state. We will continue to fight to ensure that this bill – and any future legislation that harms LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites – will never become law in Wisconsin.”

 

Based upon a prior veto, Governor Evers will likely veto the bill if it comes to his desk. Earlier this year, Evers vetoed a state budget provision that would have blocked state citizens from receiving Medicaid coverage for certain gender affirming healthcare services.

 

Litigation to block laws banning gender affirming care for youth continues in federal courts in several states. Federal judges blocked similar bans in Arkansas, Montana, Alabama, and Florida. Similar cases are pending in Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, and other states.

 

Given the opposition to these bills and their shaky legal footing, the only apparent reason they keep coming up is to gin up the faltering base of GOP voters ahead of upcoming elections. 

 

It is time for the GOP to stop creating divisive issues that hurt people who need quality healthcare to live. Those given the responsibility for governing all of us need to pay attention to the needs of all of us, not just those who think like them. 

 

It is time to put aside unfounded prejudices about gender and accept that not all of us fall neatly into a binary model. Gender fluidity is real and here to stay. Our legislators need to pass laws that provide quality health care to all and not laws which harm people in need.