Trans Formations Project Newsletter ∙ 9/9/22

Hello everyone! It is 9-9-2022, 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.

And that’s not the ONLY easy action you can take–Biden’s proposed Title IX expansions for protecting trans rights are currently in a public comment period, as we’ve previously drawn attention to. The deadline for public comment is 9/12/2022–3 days from today. And it’s FLOODED with TERF comments and complaints. Might be worth your time to help balance that out with a comment of your own, if you’ve got a few minutes to kill. 

Last week, we reported that the WPATH SOC8 was expected to drop this week–it has not, and we have received a tip that it has been delayed. As such, we’re preparing for when the WPATH SOC8 is released so that we can unpack what’s new. 

The Thing(s) We Won This Week 

So, remember last week? That unusual digression about a transphobic, far-right web forum called KiwiFarms? It’s dead. As in, “It got dropped by its service provider, picked up by a Russian service provider, then dropped by that Russian service provider, in that order.” While this is only the demise of one hate website that has harmed many online, and more will inevitably rise to take its place without systemic change, it’s made a lot of transphobes very unhappy, and made trans people that much safer online–so we’ll take it. 

What the Heck Happened Last Week?! 

So, the good news is that Florida got sued by Lambda Legal (Decker et al. v. Marstiller et al.). The lawsuit targets the Florida rule excluding trans care from Florida Medicaid coverage as specifically discriminatory. The bad news is that Florida’s attempt to ban gender care outright for minors, up to and including even social transition, continues: the time, and date, of the meeting to argue for such rules is September 30th (details here). If you’re planning to show up and protest, make due preparations now. 

Further, Oklahoma got sued as well this week over its school bathroom bill by the same organization. 

On a less encouraging note, federal-level legislation attempts aiming to outlaw (and criminalize) gender-affirming care for minors have been gaining sponsors. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “H.R.8731 - Protect Children’s Innocence Act” now has 23 cosponsors. The attempt at a federal-level “don’t say gay or trans” bill, H.R. 8767, aka the "Empowering Parents Act,” has also gained cosponsors, but now only totals 4. Keep eyes on Federal bills as they slowly gain cosponsors–they’re not much to look at right now, but they could in theory blindside us if we let them.