Another State Has Stepped In Between Our Doctors And Us.

In Wisconsin the Republican backed legislature voted not to include transgender healthcare in their Medicaid bill.

Republicans Vote Against Medicaid Transgender Care
Legislative committee vote keeps Wisconsin out of compliance with a court non-discrimination order.
Urban Milwaukee
By Melanie Conklin, Wisconsin Examiner
October 25, 2021


Republicans voted to block a change that would have brought state law into compliance with Medicaid rules, a court ruling and other laws that ban discrimination on gender-transition care.

The Department of Health Services (DHS) sought a rule change in state law, approved in June by Gov. Tony Evers, affirming that transgender individuals who participate in Medicaid can receive necessary medication, surgeries and hormone therapies. While the federal rules mean Wisconsinites seeking such care will be covered, the GOP vote means the Wisconsin statute is non-compliant with a federal court order prohibiting such discrimination.

Current Wisconsin rules date back to a discriminatory 1996 ban on transgender individuals who participate in Medicaid from using the program to cover costs for needed medication and hormone therapies. In 2019, the judge in Flack vs. the Department of Health Services, which was decided in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, concluded that such a ban violates the federal Medicaid Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Discrimination based on gender identity is also not permitted under the Affordable Care Act, including transition-related care.

So what this means is that the legislature is ignoring the Constitution, law, and a court order. Their hatred of us is so strong that they are will to uphold the Constitution that they swore an oath to do.

“That legislative Republicans would seek to deny them this care — even if it means violating a federal injunction — shows not just a lack of moral character but a lack of understanding of how our country works,” said JCRAR member Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) in a statement after the vote.

Larson said the vote showed “contempt” for the LGBTQ Wisconsinites, who Republicans have also alienated through proposed athletic participation bans by gender and by voting against outlawing “conversion therapy” that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors.

The Republicans want to step between us and our doctors. The Republicans mantra is “Get government off our backs.” What could be more invasive then telling our doctors not to treat us?
“Despite the protections of the Affordable Care Act and other laws that prohibit discrimination, transgender people continue to encounter barriers to care,” the group’s website states. “Transgender people face significant job loss and job fragility and, therefore, a higher rate of uninsurance.”

Can you imagine what a trans child is going through, what does this tell them? That the government hates them enough to let suffer.

One of the commenters said,

In some ways, this will seem like a marginal action affecting a small group of people. But it is part of a larger picture. In our country, and in an “otherized” Wisconsin, the genie of cruelty is now out of the bottle. And, once out, to mix a metaphor, it is always necessary to feed the beast. That means going after a rotating cast of scapegoats among the most vulnerable groups...

They are using the fear of their base to energize them, fear of the “others.” Fear of the immigrants, fear of the Blacks, fear of those “who are not like us.”