Trans Formations Project Newsletter ∙ 8/19/22

Hello everyone! This week, we’re covering more court drama, harassment campaigns, and concerning developments and what they suggest for the upcoming legislative sessions after the 2024 midterm elections.

The first thing we should talk about is the ongoing crisis in trans healthcare from the state of Florida. Last week, they issued new rules which would block MEDICAID from covering gender-affirming care for both adults and children. Trans groups, specifically led by Southern Legal Counsel’s Transgender Rights, are in the process of suing against these rules. It’s on: let’s keep eyes on the cases that follow. 

The Thing(s) We Won This Week 

First, Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf (Democratic) has signed an executive order aimed at protecting Pennsylvanians from conversion therapy. Given the horrific legacy of gay conversion therapy and the continued push for conversion therapy in anti-trans movements, this is a rare, unambiguously good thing–though we shall have to watch to see whether it holds, given that it is an executive order that can be overridden by a subsequent Republican governor unless it is codified into state or federal law. 

Second, an important court ruling has occurred in the 4th Circuit Federal Court’s Williams v Kincaid. This ruling has stated that gender dysphoria–the distress some trans people feel at the mismatch between their experienced gender and their bodies–is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and as such, cannot be excluded under “gender identity disorder” provisions, since GID is an antiquated and discriminatory concept which was discontinued under the DSM-5 in 2013. 

Lastly, notorious far-right troll and serial liar Chaya Raichik, better known as LIbsofTikTok, has eaten a ban from Facebook for her latest bout of blatant falsehoods that have resulted in serious harassment and threats of violence for Boston Children’s Hospital. However, mentioning this good news means we have to talk about…

What the Heck Happened This Week?! 

Let’s address the most obvious elephant in the room: Boston Children’s Hospital has been inundated with waves of harassment, death threats, and other antagonism from across the world because Chaya and Matt Walsh decided to have some fun lying about it while also misrepresenting available data. For the record, Boston Children’s Hospital does not perform hysterectomies on minors: sure, technically, you can get one as a teenager from BCH…because 18 and 19 year olds are, technically teenagers…but simply calling them teenagers obfuscates the fact that they are legal adults. That said, the notorious organization Genspect has gone on the record as referring to 18-25 year olds as “adolescents,” and claiming that this bracket should also be denied gender-affirmative care (and subjected to conversion therapy) despite being legal adults in the wake of this event, suggesting once again that their goal is to expand bans from simply minors to everyone under 25. 

Let’s also address the biggest alarm bell of the week. Somehow, we’ve gone several months without mentioning Marjorie Taylor Greene. The representative has, with cosponsors, committed to introducing what she calls the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” in an attempt to ban gender-affirmative care nationwide while classifying providing it a Class C Felony–and has gotten Tucker Carlson to state that he will pressure Republicans to support it. While the exact text of the bill is not available at the time of writing, it signals further Republican intent to take legislation against trans youth national. While such a bill is extremely unlikely to pass until at least 2024, it nevertheless is a clear signal of intent that we should not ignore. 

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