If you’ve been following the backlash against LGBTQ rights, then you’re probably very aware of the immense hatred shown toward trans kids by the GOP. Across the U.S., Republican lawmakers have taken every step they can to restrict basic human rights for trans youth, like barring trans girls from playing with cis women in school sports, or outright restricting trans kids from accessing gender-affirming care.
Now, the GOP is increasingly taking steps to keep trans adults from accessing medical care for gender transitioning. And the far-right’s biggest anti-trans figures are making their beliefs clear. Yes, they’re gunning for our hormones, and they want average, everyday Americans to join in on their crusade against us.
Podcaster and Twitter leftist darling Juniper went viral this week after she shared a post from transphobic far-right pundit Matt Walsh. In the post, Walsh claims “the entire ‘gender transition’ industry runs on fraud,” and that his team vows “to start exposing it very soon” by turning an eye to care for trans adults.
“They were always going to come for adults transitioning too,” Juniper tweeted. “I’m not posting this to try to stoke fear, but this is going to be a reality [of] what they start coming for soon, and we need to be ready.”
Walsh went on to post a thread attacking informed consent practices at gender-affirming clinics. The pundit posted a social worker’s overview for best practices for navigating physicians’ letters with insurance companies, claiming that trans care providers are lying to insurance companies so patients without gender dysphoria can receive insurance coverage. In one case, Walsh even sent his producer to a gender-affirming healthcare service to see if he could get a nurse practitioner’s letter for an orchiectomy.
Trans care providers working off an informed consent model rarely gatekeep trans patients’ access to care. These providers understand that access to trans care was (and still is) traditionally based on extreme and unfair medical standards, and so these healthcare workers are more likely to write letters for any patient that expresses direct interest in access to hormones, surgery, and other care initiatives. Nonetheless, Elon Musk supported Walsh’s transphobic screed, calling the pundit’s faux-expose “Insane!!”
Painting life-saving medication as a ‘scam’
I hate to admit it, but Juniper is correct. And we’ve already seen the GOP take steps to stop trans adults from transitioning. A Texas House bill would ban physicians and other healthcare workers from providing “a gender transition procedure or treatment to an individual younger than 26 years of age.” Healthcare professionals would not be allowed to “refer an individual younger than 26 years of age to a physician or health care professional for a gender transition procedure or treatment” either. Similarly, an Oklahoma Senate bill introduced in February originally planned to ban medical access for trans care for anyone under 26.
Republicans are also introducing new ways to restrict trans healthcare through subtle, deceptive steps that make hormone access far more challenging. In Tennessee, one bill would make it impossible for trans people on Medicaid to access trans care via insurance, making blood tests and hormone prescriptions virtually impossible to afford for working-class trans people, according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, a Florida law restricting trans healthcare for minors also forces adults to seek out care through in-person visits with a physician, preventing many trans adults from receiving care through virtual visits with nurse practitioners, according to the Associated Press. In some cases, LGBTQ health clinics simply cannot provide trans Floridians care under the current legal expectations, forcing their trans patients to scramble for doctors that can take on DeSantis’ heftier requirements.
While a federal judge has since placed a temporary and limited injunction on the Florida law, calling into question its constitutionality, the Florida GOP has still made obvious its intentions. Republican politicians don’t just want trans kids to stop transitioning, they want trans adults to feel unsupported, delayed, and restricted in accessing trans care. This is just plain fact, one that far-right figures have openly admitted. American Principles Project President Terry Schilling told the Washington Post that he wants “transition care to be thought of as horrific medical practices that happened in the past.” He also called trans care a “bad medical fad” equivalent to “lobotomies or eugenics” while speaking with the New York Times.
So when Matt Walsh calls gender-affirming care for adults a “racket” and a “scam,” arguing that “the ‘gender transition’ industry is corrupt and fraudulent from the ground up,” take him at face value. Walsh isn’t just talking a big game. He and his fellow right-wingers are coming for trans adults. They’re coming for our surgeries, our hormones, our blockers, and everything they can get their hands on. And they won’t stop until every single jurisdiction has made it physically impossible for us to physically transition.
(featured image: Matt Hrkac/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
