Trans Formations Project Newsletter ∙ 9/2/22

Hello everyone! It is 9-2-2022, and as always, this week we’re covering updates in ongoing legislative proceedings involving trans rights and the legal status of trans people in the U.S.

As a reminder, there’s still an action folks can take this week as far as existing legislation is concerned: the ACA Section 1557, which is the section that (on paper) prohibits medicaid from denying gender-affirmative care (but in practice, this is not absolute), is subject to a motion to expand its interpretations to make banning said care harder. There’s a public comment period on this open until October 3rd, and if you want to submit a comment to help see this become official, here’s how. 

It’s also worth noting that Zinnia Jones of Gender Analysis has done an exhaustive amount of work uncovering the influence of the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) in the sources of the Florida ACHA document. It’s worth a read! 

There is another important (and concerning) milestone on the horizon. WPATH, the leading association governing standards of medical care available to trans people internationally, is set to release the 8th version of its standards of care (SOC) this week. However, trans groups have highlighted deeply concerning factors about the draft versions of the SOC8 that suggest transphobic influence within WPATH, particularly within the groups working on adolescent care. As such, all eyes should be attuned to the release of the SOC8 for what impact it might have on the ongoing fight here and abroad. 

The Thing(s) We Won This Week 

The most prominent thing that we won this week is that California’s trans refugee bill (SB107) has passed the Assembly and awaits Governor Gavin Newsom (D)’s signature to become law. ) This is one of the more stringent “sanctuary” bills for trans youth and their parents fleeing states criminalizing trans healthcare for minors. 

What the Heck Happened Last Week?! 

The comings and goings of Cloudflare and KiwiFarms are not our normal purview, but it is still relevant that, despite being directly called out by multiple big-name queer advocacy groups including GLAAD, web host Cloudflare has doubled down in its support of hate-speech forum and serial SWATTING and Doxxing offender KiwiFarms. Trans Safety Network has done an admirable job of rapidly communicating what the heck’s happening with respect to that horrorshow–and while we can’t say you’ll sleep any easier knowing, you should probably read both of these. 

Transphobic “radical feminist” group Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF)--an organization that claims to support women despite hating trans people and opposing the Equality Act–has taken umbrage at the 8th Circuit Court’s decision. This would normally not be something under our purview–if it weren’t for the fact that they’re calling upon their members to mobilize in favor of federal legislation to ban gender-affirmative care for minors (specifically, HR8171) and instruct their members to reach out to their congresspeople to support said bill. Might be a good idea to call yours and tell them to oppose it, just in case, since we know they’re mobilizing! Especially as this is an organization with some reach in Republican circles, last week, Mississippi’s Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, signed an anti-transgender “Women’s bill of rights” partially created by this group. 

Lastly, in Texas, an amicus brief has been entered into the ongoing litigation against Greg Abbott’s anti-trans directives detailing the impact his decrees have had on the Texas DFPS. The brief comes from current and former DFPS employees, urging the court to keep the abuse investigations (which, recall, are against parents who accept their transgender children for no other reason than that) on hold while the case is litigated. The directive has the agency “on the brink of collapse,” and has generally wreaked havoc. It’s worth reading the article on it.

And with that, let’s see what next week brings. Stay safe out there.