The Fallout

We are now seeing the fallout from Texas anti-trans healthcare policy and it is not good, harm will be done to children.

In Texas, the nation's largest children's hospital is halting gender-affirming care for trans youths
Washington Post vis Yahoo News
By Anne Branigin
March 8, 2022


For A, the mother of a young transgender daughter in Houston, denying her child hormone therapy "is not an option."

Few people know that A's daughter is transgender, A said, but that could change once her child goes through puberty - something that could happen in a matter of months. Her child's doctors have recommended her daughter start taking puberty blockers at the first onset of such hormonal changes. But on Friday, Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the country, announced it would stop prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapies.

The hospital said the policy was decided "after assessing the Attorney General's and Governor's actions," which include a recent order from Gov. Greg Abbott, R, directing Texas's child welfare agency to investigate reports of children receiving gender-affirming care as "child abuse."

It seems to me that the hospital is now in violation of the Affordable Care Act Section 1557, bit a lot that will do to all the trans children who are now being denied proper healthcare.

The March 2 Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) policy statement said,

...OCR is investigating and, where appropriate, enforcing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act1 cases involving discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in accordance with all applicable law. This means that if people believe they have been discriminated against in a health program or activity that receives financial assistance from HHS, they can file a complaint. 

It also seems to me that if the hospital gives out medical information on patients would be a violation of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996).

[See Texas sues to prevent losing federal funds over its investigations of trans children’s families below.]

Meanwhile our children are suffering.

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More pushback…

Column: Texas and Idaho show that red state attacks on transgender residents are getting more unhinged
LA Times
By Michael Hiltzik
March 9, 2022


You have to hand it to Idaho lawmakers. In a season in which red-state politicians are battling each other in the competition for who can produce the most extreme anti-transgender policies, the Boise legislature is poised to take home the trophy.

The Idaho House on Tuesday passed a measure that criminalizes gender-affirming therapies for children under 18, ranging from hormone and puberty-delaying treatments to surgery.

These treatments would be felonies subject to penalties of up to life in prison. Idaho’s real breakthrough, however, is that the crimes would also include arranging for such treatment out of state.

[…]

In other words, you can be persecuted in the state, and persecuted for leaving the state.

Of course like other Republican states, the Constitution and the Supreme Court are ignored.

Strictures such as the Idaho proposal look to be flagrantly unconstitutional; it amounts to a state trying to regulate the laws of other statss [sic].

“The Supreme Court has said in numerous cases that freedom of travel is a fundamental right,” Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional scholar, told me. He warns that some states may take a similar approach by prohibiting women from traveling out of state to get an abortion—indeed, just such a proposal has surfaced in the Missouri legislature.

Idaho House Bill 675 is now in the hands of the Idaho Senate. The measure takes its place with more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills under consideration by state legislators across the country, according to a reckoning by the Human Rights Campaign, a watchdog for LGBTQ+ rights.

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Texas Update #2

Texas is now getting really worried that they might have FU royally.

They got hammered in the above case and now they are worrying about losing 26 billion dollars!

Texas sues to prevent losing federal funds over its investigations of trans children’s families
Texas is worried it could lose over a billion dollars in federal funding over Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive requiring medical professionals to report gender-affirming care for minors as child abuse.
Texas Tribune
By Brooke Park
March 9, 2022


Texas is worried it could lose over a billion dollars in federal funding over Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive requiring medical professionals to report transgender children receiving gender-affirming health care as potential child abuse.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton amended an existing lawsuit suing the Biden administration Wednesday, attempting to void guidance issued by the U.S. Health and Human Services on March 2 that said restricting someone’s ability to receive medical care solely on the basis of their sex assigned at birth or gender identity is likely a violation of the Affordable Care Act for federally funded entities. That federal guidance came in response to Abbott’s directive issued late last month to treat certain medical treatments for trans children as possible crimes to be investigated by the Department of Family and Protective Services.

The federal guidance stated that health care providers do not need to disclose private patient information regarding gender-affirming care and that it is illegal to deny health care based on gender identity.

[…]

In 2020, $1.36 billion in federal funds went to Texas’ Department of State Health Services, Paxton said in the lawsuit. More than $26 billion went to the State’s Health and Human Services Commission.

OUCH! That is what they get for discriminating against us and not obeying the law.

May be Idaho and Alabama might have second thoughts.

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Pressure is also coming from other sources,

Pushback grows against targeting transgender children
Advocates fear greater risk of suicide, bullying of trans kids
KSAT
By Jessie Degollado, Reporter & Luis Cienfuegos, Photojournalist
March 9, 2022


“They’re trying to take away the ability and the opportunity for parents to parent,” said Robert Salcido Jr., executive director of Pride Center San Antonio.

Salcido said pushback against those targeting transgender children is growing as similar efforts to those in Texas and Florida are spreading across the country.

“Families are embracing together to fight against this because it is fundamentally wrong that be these lawmakers are pushing their way into people’s homes and not allowing them to parent their children,” Salcido said.

It seems that the Republicans want to get the government out of our lives only for their issues, putting government between you and your doctor is okay with them, what is going on in your bedroom is also for the Republicans to stick their nose in. But god forbid telling you wear a mask.

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In other sad news the “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed the Republican controlled legislature and goes on to the governor, the Trump want-to-be, DeSantis.

Florida lawmakers pass controversial so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill
NPR
By Danielle Prieur
March 8, 2022


Florida lawmakers passed a controversial bill that limits discussion of homosexuality and gender identity in schools. Students and teachers opposed to the legislation are responding.

Florida lawmakers have passed a controversial bill that would prohibit discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida schools. Opponents have dubbed this the Don't Say Gay bill, and Governor Ron DeSantis has said he will sign it into law.

It is a dark day for human rights and the First Amendment.