[Analysis] Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups, AP finds
[Analysis] Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups, AP finds
Legislation to restrict gender-affirming care is often pre-written and shopped out by a handful of interest groups. So-called model legislation has been used in statehouses for decades.
Aaron and Lacey Jennen’s roots in Arkansas run deep. They’ve spent their entire lives there, attended the flagship state university, and are raising a family. So they’re heartbroken at the prospect of perhaps having to move to one of an ever-dwindling number of states where gender-affirming health care for their transgender teenage daughter, Sabrina, is not threatened.
“We were like, ‘OK, if we can just get Sabrina to 18 ... we can put all this horrible stuff behind us,’” Aaron Jennen said, “and unfortunately that’s not been the case, as you’ve seen a proliferation of anti-trans legislation here in Arkansas and across the country.”
At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some, including Arkansas. An Associated Press analysis found that often those bills sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a handful of conservative interest groups.
Discrimination on the basis of sex.
Care that is fully available to someone assigned male at birth is not available to someone assigned female at birth and vice-versa. The sex the state identifies you as having is used as the only basis to deny certain services and care. These antitrans bills ARE illegal. It's not just that they ought to be. The current law ALREADY bans them and only total corruption of the court systems stops them from finding as such.
Not to even mention the fact that medical freedom and parent choice ought to totally obviate any bigoted and unscientific beliefs about gender even in a philosophically conservative framework. But they don't, because hurting people is not a side-effect, it's the direct goal.