02-22-2024
For the last several years, conservative lawmakers have introduced legislation to limit the access of transgender minors to medical interventions and to regulate how schools address related topics. Now, they have expanded their attempts to regulate trans people by focusing on adults. Missouri, Iowa, West Virginia, and other states have introduced legislation to require transgender adults to use restrooms aligned with their gender identity at birth. Some legislatures do not want transgender folks to mark their gender identity on their driver's licenses.
These lawmakers want to regulate how society treats its transgender citizens. Because some of them do not believe in having a gender identity different than the one assigned at birth, they want laws that align with that belief. Conservative strategists created a game plan to restrict the rights of trans individuals, per the Washington Post. They began with restricting sports participation and then moved to transition care for minors. Twenty-three states have passed bans on transition healthcare for young people (some federal courts have stopped the laws going into effect). Next, they want to limit healthcare support for trans adults.
Florida passed restrictions on adult trans healthcare. Under those restrictions, trans adults on hormones can only receive their medication in person from a doctor. With many trans adults qualifying as low-income, 80% of those people used to receive their prescriptions from nurse practitioners. As a consequence of the new restrictions, many individuals cannot get their hormones, causing medical challenges. The Ohio governor wants to require healthcare practitioners to report every time they diagnose someone as trans, prescribe cross-sex hormones, or perform a gender reassignment surgery. While the information is purportedly for data purposes, trans advocates expressed concern about how government officials may use the information.