#gender affirming care bans

[genderqueerpositivity]

A slew of anti-trans bills were just filed in SC. Some target an issue that isn't happening.

Transgender issues could prove to be a major topic in the South Carolina State House in 2024, judging by a slew of Republican-led bills filed ahead of the upcoming legislative session.

Nine bills pre-filed in the S.C. House pertaining to gender transition procedures, gender affirming care, gender-assigned bathrooms and other LGBTQ-related issues signal that the topic of LGBTQ+ care and access could be one of the major talking points among the state’s lawmakers this year. More than one bill has been filed pertaining to surgeries specifically, and one of them is championed by two of the most powerful Republican figures in the state.

As expected, starting the year and legislative session off by targeting trans people.

Hiott, who represents the Upstate’s Pickens County, said he believes it’s wrong to think there are more than two genders and that no doctor in South Carolina should be performing gender reassignment surgery on someone under the age of 18.

“I just think that you were born a male or you were born a female, and that’s the only two genders there are,” Hiott said. “What you were born as, that’s what God intended you to be, and I don’t believe it should be anybody’s right to change that.”

Fuck Christian fascism.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The first openly transgender state representative in Montana history is facing either censure or outright expulsion, after she said Republicans would have “blood on their hands” for passing a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

Rep. Zooey Zephyr was sworn in just three months ago after winning a Missoula-based seat in November. GOP leaders have refused to recognize her in floor debates until she apologizes for the comment. On Monday, supporters rallied on the steps of the state Capitol, and chants of “Let her speak!” shut down proceedings in the House for nearly a half-hour, as Zephyr hoisted her microphone above her head.

On Tuesday, Zephyr tweeted a letter she received from leaders in the Republican-controlled chamber declaring their intention to bring a motion “with respect to the conduct of Representative Zooey Zephyr.”

The House will “determine if [Zephyr]’s conduct on the Floor of the House on April 24, 2023 violated the rules, collective rights, safety, dignity, integrity, or decorum of the House of Representatives, and if so, whether to impose disciplinary consequences for those actions,” according to the letter sent to Zephyr. The House will meet Wednesday afternoon.

“I have been informed that during tomorrow’s floor session there will be a motion to either censure or expel me,” Zephyr said in a Tuesday tweet. “I’ve also been told I’ll get a chance to speak. I will do as I have always done—rise on behalf of my constituents, in defense of my community, & for democracy itself.”

Zephyr’s clash with the GOP began last week when she made the comment during a floor debate on the transition care ban. Since then, Republicans have refused to let her participate in floor debates entirely, even when she’s requested to speak last week, the far-right Montana Freedom Caucus demanded Zephyr’s immediate censure while misgendering her in their statement.

The move to silence Zephyr has been met with fierce protests. On Monday, supporters rallied on the steps of the state Capitol, and chants of “Let her speak!” shut down proceedings in the House for nearly a half-hour, as Zephyr hoisted her microphone above her head.

Riot cops who were called to the chamber arrested seven protesters. Republicans claimed that the protests had turned violent, though the protesters were charged only with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor. In the letter, Republican leaders said the House gallery, where Montana citizens are able to watch proceedings, will be closed Wednesday during the debate on whether to punish Zephyr.

“It’s not enough for them to get the harmful bills through,” Zephyr told reporters Monday. “When someone stands up and calls out their bills for the harm they cause, for the deaths they cause, they want silence. And we will not be complicit in our eradication.”

Montana House Speaker Matt Regier said in a statement Tuesday that “the choice not to follow House rules is one that Rep. Zephyr has made.”

“The only person silencing Rep. Zephyr is Rep. Zephyr. The Montana House will not be bullied,” Regier said.

Tensions have escalated in state legislatures such as Montana’s this year, as Republicans across the country have used simple rules violations as a pretext to crack down on dissent.

Earlier this month, the Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two young Black lawmakers, Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis and Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, and nearly expelled a third white lawmaker from Knoxville, after the trio protested for gun law reforms in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville in March.

The move, however, backfired spectacularly. Pearson and Jones became national figures overnight, they were quickly re-appointed to the seats they’d been expelled from, and both are expected to run in special elections to determine a replacement for, well, themselves. They met with President Joe Biden at the White House earlier this week.

Tennessee Republicans have also drawn increased scrutiny to themselves, after expelling Jones and Pearson for bringing “disorder and dishonor” to the legislature; a member of the leadership abruptly resigned last week after a complaint that he’d sexually harassed an intern became public, and the Speaker of the Tennessee House, Cameron Sexton, has faced new questions about whether he really resides in his district.

On Tuesday, Pearson offered his support to Zephyr in a tweet.

“Voices across the country continue to rise for justice and expose the anti-democratic behavior of people in Republican led states,” Pearson said. “We will not let our democracy die without fighting for every voice. We are in this fight from Memphis to Montana!”

[whatbigotspost]

I hate August. I love September. But just as with September 1st 2 years ago when SCOTUS previewed the overturning of Roe by allowing abortion to be outlawed here, there’s no celebrating for me today.

It’s a shitty day in Texas. Realllllllll shitty.

From Instagram, linking to this post from OutYouth for the resources they share.

Sadly, Texas is joining 21 other states with other such heinous laws.

“Additional bans on gender-affirming care have been passed in North Carolina, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Iowa, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia, Indiana, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida.”

This hate fueled targeting and incessant attacking of trans people ESPECIALLY CHILDREN is disgusting beyond words.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[reasonsforhope]

"Georgia Republicans bundled over a dozen measures that targeted the state’s transgender residents into omnibus packages in a desperate attempt to get them passed. In a stunning defeat for the GOP, every single one of them failed.

Legislators gutted bills that had passed through committee and instead stuffed them full of their anti-LGBTQ+ wishlist items.

Bills that would ban transgender students from playing on teams aligned with their gender identity, ban transgender students from bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, opt parents into notification for every book a student checks out of the library, bar sex education before sixth grade, make all sex-ed classes opt-in and expand obscenity laws to make it easier to ban books with LGBTQ+ content all failed.

“MAGA politicians in Georgia tried it all in service to their anti-LGBTQ+ agenda,” said Human Rights Campaign Georgia State Director Bentley Hudgins, “including silencing debate and gutting unrelated, popular bills that had bipartisan support to ram through policies that would have put young LGBTQ+ Georgians in harm’s way. They failed.”

“It’s undeniable that the tides are shifting, both here in Georgia and across the nation,” Georgia Equality executive director Jeff Graham added. “Anti-LGBTQ actors are losing their political power, and more and more Georgians who know and love LGBTQ people are standing up against their baseless fear-mongering.”

In Florida recently, nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ+ bills were defeated in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) presidential campaign implosion, dozens of measures in Virginia were tabled [Note: In the US, "tabled" means "shelved" or "taken out of consideration - the opposite of its meaning in the UK and other places], and Ohio’s governor backed off his attempt to restrict gender-affirming care access for transgender adults and minors. 

Meanwhile, in D.C., Democrats successfully excised 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in the two budget bills passed and signed by President Joe Biden to fund the federal government.

Even Fox News has been forced to acknowledge transgender issues are among the lowest-priority concerns among voters."

-via LGBTQ Nation, April 1, 2024

[liberaljane]

Anti-Trans Legislation Kills

[Digital illustration of a Black trans women wearing a dress made of words describing anti-trans legislation. Bills included are, “gender-affirming care bans, insurance coverage bans, drag bans, misgendering, uneducated medical professionals, youth sports bans, book bans, dead naming, stigma, and workplace discrimination.’ Text reads, ‘anti-trans legislation kills.’]

[zinniajones]

Florida Adult Trans Care Ban SB 254, June 3, 2023 interim update

(from www.floridaban.com)

INTERIM UPDATE, June 3, 2023:

Rainbow Progress Fund provides a firsthand account of the joint Boards of Medicine committee hearing on June 1, including false and eugenicist claims by Board member Patrick Hunter (a member of the anti-trans Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine and Catholic Medical Association) that transitioning "lowers IQ" of trans people.

The committee failed to advance any of the necessary informed consent forms, mandated by SB 254, that are needed by MDs and DOs before they can resume providing new prescriptions. This means that until these forms become available, MDs and DOs cannot prescribe their established trans patients any new change in dosage of their current medication, or add any new medication to their existing HRT regimen.

Simone Chriss of Southern Legal Counsel, a nonprofit currently bringing litigation against SB 254 and its adult care restrictions, explains the current effective policy and status of prescribing restrictions on MDs/DOs as of June 3, 2023:

“While no draft consent forms have been released yet, the Boards are expected to file an emergency rule soon that will provide clarification about continuation of care for patients while the informed consent forms are being developed. The Boards’ discussions over the past two days indicated that, as we’d shared previously, physicians can continue prescribing to patients who provided informed consent and were first prescribed prior to May 17th. The emergency rule should provide guidance on whether and how new prescriptions and adjustments to medications can be prescribed prior to the adoption of informed consent forms. No emergency rule language has been posted yet on the Florida Administrative Register.”

Rainbow Progress Fund explains the unacceptable medical danger of the current situation for trans patients: "Those currently on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) will not be able to adjust their medication until the new consent forms are finalized. This delay poses potential risks to patients whose hormone levels may require immediate attention."

To be clear, even when these forms become available, this does not and will not change SB 254's statutory ban on NPs and APRNs prescribing gender-affirming care. As 80% of trans adults on HRT in Florida receive their prescriptions via an NP or APRN, the effects of SB 254 have permanently disrupted the established prescriptions and ongoing medical treatment of thousands of trans adults across the state. SB 254 continuously jeopardizes the trans community's health and must still be mitigated in its entirety.

No other state has ever imposed SB 254's novel and selective restrictions on NPs and APRNs, who have prescribing authority just as doctors and physicians can prescribe medication. NPs and APRNs in all other states - and in Florida until SB 254 was enacted this May - have always been able to prescribe all gender-affirming hormone therapy, including schedule III medications like testosterone. "NPs have the prescriptive authority to prescribe controlled substances in all fifty states." (Zhang & Patel, 2022) There has never been any reason for this unique new restriction on NPs alone, prohibiting gender-affirming prescriptions alone, other than Florida's intentional targeting of the ongoing medically necessary treatment of almost all trans adults in the state.

The committee concluded that their next meeting will occur in three weeks, on June 23 at an undetermined location or video call, to continue considering the required adult consent forms. This is completely unacceptable. The Boards must issue the mandated informed consent forms immediately in order to restore the ability of MDs and DOs to freely manage and prescribe any new or changed medically necessary treatment for their trans patients, even as this is itself utterly insufficient to mitigate the overwhelming danger to health and life caused by SB 254.

None of this is over until SB 254 is completely reversed.

We will continue to provide updates as we confirm any further policy actions by the Boards and their impacts on trans patients and our providers. The policy chart below will be updated to incorporate this information when it becomes available. Thank you to the trans community of Florida for closely monitoring this situation and assisting us, and to our allies here and abroad. The world will see that we are not alone and you are a part of making that happen. Your strength and unstoppable spirit in an unimaginable situation is what will ensure we survive. As long as Florida exists, Transgender Florida will be a fact. (Zinnia Jones, June 3, 2023)

Please support Florida's local gender clinics and their nurse practitioners as they work to survive this crisis and continue providing care to trans Floridians: https://spektrum.health/DONATE/

[highintensity-dyke]

Ohio and Michigan GOP members accidentally posted a private discussion of how they plan to totally ban gender affirming care for children and adults

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

MO Republican pushing trans care ban suggests 12-year-olds should be allowed to marry | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

BY KACEN BAYLESS

A Missouri Republican state senator this week suggested that children as young as 12 should be able to get married as he pushes legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

“Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12? I do. And guess what? They’re still married,” state Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, said Tuesday evening in response to questioning by state Rep. Peter Merideth, a St. Louis Democrat.

Moon made the comment during testimony in the House General Laws Committee over his bill that would ban all “gender transition procedures” for people under 18, which passed the Missouri Senate last month. Moon has attempted to frame his legislation as a way to protect kids as LGBTQ rights advocates call the bill an attack on the transgender community.

The Republican state senator has been lambasted on social media for his comment, with many pointing out the inconsistencies between his views on child marriage and his legislation targeting transgender kids.

“The fact that Missouri Senator Mike Moon said that 12 year olds can be married off to adults just sickens me,” Jess Piper, executive director of Blue Missouri, a group that fundraises for Democrats, wrote on Twitter. “My daughter is nearly 11 and still plays with Barbies and her baby dolls. We are living in a hellscape in Missouri under a GOP supermajority.”

Missouri in 2018 passed a law setting the state’s minimum marriage age at 16, with the approval of one parent or guardian. The law’s passage came after The Star revealed that Missouri had the nation’s most lenient marriage law for 15-year-olds. It previously allowed children even younger to marry with a judge’s approval.

Activists have argued that the Missouri law still doesn’t go far enough, leaving thousands of 16- and 17-year-olds open to the kind of abuse, poverty, helplessness, lack of education and exploitation that often accompany child marriage.

Moon, a hard-right member of the state Senate known for his extreme views and comments, voted against the marriage bill when he was a member of the House.

Merideth on Tuesday had pointed out Moon’s vote against the marriage bill, saying it was inconsistent with his claim of protecting kids through legislation that would ban gender-affirming care.

“You voted no on making it illegal for kids to be married to adults at the age of 12 if their parents consented to it. You said, actually, that should be the law because it’s the parents right and the kid’s right to decide what’s best for them — to be raped by an adult,” Merideth told Moon.

[gilligould]

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[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[gwydionmisha]

Now is an excellent time to tell your Democratic Congress Critters trans Healthcare is important

If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/