Trans Formations Project Newsletter ∙ 8/12/22

Hello everyone! It’s going to be a short update this week from the TransFormations Project regarding legislation. Obviously, the biggest story this week in trans healthcare is the entirely expected (but still horrific) moves by Florida’s Board of Medicine, who voted last Friday to initiate a rule-making process for banning gender-affirming care in Florida. This move occurs in spite of exhaustive evidence submitted to the Board of Medicine by the American Academy of Pediatrics and in spite of an exhaustive debunking from Yale School of Medicine–but is to be expected given that all relevant authorities were DeSantis Appointees. As of 8/11/2022, Florida AHCA has banned gender-affirming care from being covered by state Medicaid. This ban takes effect in just nine days–on August 21st, 2022. 

The implications of Florida Health’s moves, the science behind it, and how we got to this point are being extensively analyzed by multiple sources online, but one particularly thorough source is here and here. All eyes should remain on Florida, but all states with Republican governorships should be carefully watched because if DeSantis can make this work, it offers a pathway to ban gender affirmative care that bypasses the legislation we typically track here. Already, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia is attempting to use similar methods to ban any mention of homosexuality in Virginia schools in lieu of relying on the legislature for Don’t Say Gay bills. 

With that grotesque nightmare covered, let’s cleanse the palate with The Thing We Won This Week. 

Good news out of California: its trans refugee bill, SB 107, was amended and sent for a third reading, the last obstacle before it can be passed. This reading can be viewed here when it is read in assembly, so keep eyes out on the interwebs for when there’s a date available for when that bill gets read. Genspect, anti-trans parent groups, and the whole apparatus are campaigning hard against this bill. 

Here’s hoping this goes well and that next week, we can tell you about SB 107 passing! 

And, as always, ongoing active bills and contact information for all state representatives can be found on the TransFormations Project’s website.