Trans Formations Project Newsletter ∙ 8/5/22

Let’s address the Elephant in the room. The room in question being one in the Marriott at Fort Lauderdale Airport, 166 N. Compass Way, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33004, occupied this Friday by a Board Meeting of the Florida Board of Medicine. The express goal of the meeting is effectively forbidding gender-affirmative care in the State of Florida on the basis of no scientific merit and the testimony of known hate groups and conversion therapy advocates whose “expertise” have been rejected by multiple judges. It’s about to get very, very ugly in Florida today. In the coming weeks, all eyes should be on Florida considering that other Republican-led states will likely attempt to copy the playbook used there. As such, just about everything we’d usually put in our “What the Heck Happened This Week?!” section is likely to occur as you’re reading this (or even after it!). 

A damning news piece has also been released from Vice highlighting that many of the researchers cited in FL Health’s “report” were unaware their work was being used in such a way, and strongly object to how Florida is misrepresenting their work. 

As if that weren’t enough, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis used his executive power to forcibly remove a State Attorney who vowed to adhere to existing rules on abortion and gender-affirming care while spreading demonstrable lies about bottom surgery on minors. Specifically, DeSantis has attempted to suspend elected Democratic State Attorney for Hillsborough County, Andrew Warren, because Warren has stated that he will not enforce abortion bans, and has condemned efforts to restrict gender affirming care. DeSantis claims this is Warren “putting himself above the law.” DeSantis has attempted to appoint a judge in the Hillsborough 13th Circuit court, Susan Lopez, as Warren’s replacement. For his part, Warren has said that he’s “not going anywhere” and is continuing to perform his duties. As such, this situation should be monitored.

If you want to learn more about Warren, here’s a piece on him and his career. 

As such, we can only offer you things we won this week, as all eyes are on Florida. 

The Thing(s) We Won This Week

Good news out of Massachusetts: Governor Charlie Baker, despite being a Republican, has signed Massachusetts H.5090, which protects both abortion rights and gender-affirming care, into law. Baker has begun working with Vice President Harris on bipartisan approaches to protecting aboriton rights (to the irritation of Massachusetts Republicans). 

There is also good news out of California: their bill, SB107, which protects trans youth fleeing other states, has passed out of committee and is progressing towards law. 

Good news also comes from court proceedings out of West Virginia. West Virginia has blanket exclusions in its Medicaid which (plaintiffs claim in Fain v. Crouch) violate Section 1557 of the American Care Act (ACA). Or, rather, we should say “had” because on August 2nd, a district court ruled against this practice! As such, all transgender West Virginians on Medicaid must be covered as per this judgement. The judgment in question also dismissed testimony from “expert” witness Dr. Stephen Levine, noting (a) that his 2016 claims were at odds with known literature on the subject of gender-affirming care and (b) that prior courts had disregarded his testimony for his documented biases and “misrepresentations” of current standards of care. 

Let these small victories give you some hope, at least. We’re going to need it. 

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