In a sudden and much-needed victory for LGBT rights, Senate Republicans abandoned their efforts to ban federal Medicaid funding of gender-affirming care for trans people.
I've had to shift my thinking in these super dark times: Every delay saves lives a little longer.
EDIT: Sometimes when the goal of "defeat fascism" seems out of reach, we have shift our thinking to, "Save as many people as we can for as long as we can".
Agreed. Republicans didn’t take the medical care ban out of the bill. It was a democrat, who called it out, and the senate parliamentarian who struck that portion. There is no bottom I can see to the maga manufacturing of hatred and othering being done to trans, intersex, and nonbinary populations.
The good news is that anything other than a budget bill is subject to filibuster, which the dems were united enough on to kill the trans-girls-in-sports bill earlier this year. That's no guarantee, but it's at least a much higher hurdle for the GOP to go through to get it passed.
On the other hand, you're absolutely right that they'll introduce various anti-trans bills that they know won't succeed, but they'll campaign on democratic rejection of them.
Your comment Celeste Irwin is on point. I would only add; while rejecting the human rights crushing legislation pushed by the right: Democrats, independents, and everyone else need to be calling out the evil, and unjust persecution by demanding it immediately stop.
It's worth remembering that the filibuster is not a matter of law, but rather of long-standing procedural tradition. If Republicans decide they can gain more by eliminating it altogether, then they will, and it won't require much effort at all.
I think the only reason they haven't yet is because they still think there's a chance they could lose control of the government again, and they want to keep the filibuster in their pocket just in case. If they do get rid of it, I expect that to be the death knell of our democracy- because it will mean they no longer consider the Democratic party to be a threat to their power.
This is a huge and important win, not least of which is because the legal erasure/definition of sex language was apparently struck also. It is hard to emphasize how damaging that would have been. Trump has already attempted such in an EO, but EOs aren’t laws. This, however, would have codified legal erasure into law - which would have had incredibly damaging consequences. So it’s a relief to be spared this. The Republicans know how horrible ID bans/restrictions are, and that’s why they push for them.
However, people need to remain VERY vigilant - the desire of the transohobes to do this hasn’t waned one bit, and so look for it to resurface in the near future. They are going to keep trying and keep trying until they succeed. Only with the utmost in strength and resolve will such hostile efforts be restrained. We also need all the Democratic allies on our side that we can get.
People who live in blue states need to fiercely guard their existing trans protections, because at this point, those protections are all that is really left.
The NYT currently lacks the collective sense of self awareness to realize they've become literally a parody of the paper they once were. When the Onion does more long form journalism, less editorial, more fact checking, has a more balanced ideological rudder, and generally better writing and fewer TERFs, MAGAs, neo-Nazis, and gencrits, one simply has to question, what purpose does it serve except to provide a customer base for the Koch Industries, Inc. paper pulp tree farms in Confederate states?
Because... what selling proposition does it actually HAVE as MAGA LITE?!?
MAGAs want it down and dirty, they want their fascism and Nazi cuckporn hard and nasty, and only YouTube, Gateway Pundit, Newsmax, the Stormfront, and 8chan have it as vile, bloody, and stupid as they require. They don't even like OAN or Fox anymore, they're too libtard.
And most New Yorkers and literate folks have given up on the NYT. Most extant subscriptions are internet ghosts, legacies, and bots.
They no longer have an audience or a selling proposition.
My best friend who works as a trans advocate in FL asks: "I had read that the bill also stripped gender affirming care coverage from the government health plan marketplace. Do you know if that is true, and if it is, if it is still in there?"
Medical assistance benefits like all health-care coverage protect the public from untreated illnesses and the grief associated with illness and death. To a trans individual, GAC isn't just an abstract concept, be it so for these people claiming it's not a public-health matter, we don't have to make the rules based on a vocal minority of self-serving ignorance. I'm not going to hold back on enforcing the ideals of those who perceive the world and government as they really are.
Be very careful here. If Wyden's point of order had prevailed, the provision could not go back in the Act during conference. By pulling the sections here, the Republicans have cleverly left the conferees open to inserting them in conference. If a conference agreement with the provision goes back to the Senate, Wyden would need to ask for a Byrd point of order again.
This is only a temporary victory. The real damage this bill has is a provision that will allow Trump to unilaterally suspend or cancel ANY election he wants to for ANY reason. This will be the nail in the coffin of OUR democracy.
Might it be they pulled it because the FBI is creating a list of trans affirming care providers and going after them? They have many ways to accomplish their heinous goals.
No parades just yet on this one. Anticipate it to resurface in a future, narrower targeted bill. Likely before the midterms
I've had to shift my thinking in these super dark times: Every delay saves lives a little longer.
EDIT: Sometimes when the goal of "defeat fascism" seems out of reach, we have shift our thinking to, "Save as many people as we can for as long as we can".
Agreed. Republicans didn’t take the medical care ban out of the bill. It was a democrat, who called it out, and the senate parliamentarian who struck that portion. There is no bottom I can see to the maga manufacturing of hatred and othering being done to trans, intersex, and nonbinary populations.
The good news is that anything other than a budget bill is subject to filibuster, which the dems were united enough on to kill the trans-girls-in-sports bill earlier this year. That's no guarantee, but it's at least a much higher hurdle for the GOP to go through to get it passed.
On the other hand, you're absolutely right that they'll introduce various anti-trans bills that they know won't succeed, but they'll campaign on democratic rejection of them.
Your comment Celeste Irwin is on point. I would only add; while rejecting the human rights crushing legislation pushed by the right: Democrats, independents, and everyone else need to be calling out the evil, and unjust persecution by demanding it immediately stop.
100% agree, Brooklyn!
It's worth remembering that the filibuster is not a matter of law, but rather of long-standing procedural tradition. If Republicans decide they can gain more by eliminating it altogether, then they will, and it won't require much effort at all.
Oh absolutely - they just haven’t gone to that step yet (which has surprised me). If they do… all hell breaks loose.
I think the only reason they haven't yet is because they still think there's a chance they could lose control of the government again, and they want to keep the filibuster in their pocket just in case. If they do get rid of it, I expect that to be the death knell of our democracy- because it will mean they no longer consider the Democratic party to be a threat to their power.
That all sounds right to me!
Or just made irrelevant by SCOTUS at some point
a sobering reality :(
I will take it- hooray!!!
This is a huge and important win, not least of which is because the legal erasure/definition of sex language was apparently struck also. It is hard to emphasize how damaging that would have been. Trump has already attempted such in an EO, but EOs aren’t laws. This, however, would have codified legal erasure into law - which would have had incredibly damaging consequences. So it’s a relief to be spared this. The Republicans know how horrible ID bans/restrictions are, and that’s why they push for them.
However, people need to remain VERY vigilant - the desire of the transohobes to do this hasn’t waned one bit, and so look for it to resurface in the near future. They are going to keep trying and keep trying until they succeed. Only with the utmost in strength and resolve will such hostile efforts be restrained. We also need all the Democratic allies on our side that we can get.
People who live in blue states need to fiercely guard their existing trans protections, because at this point, those protections are all that is really left.
Looking forward to the NYT postmortem that says they weren’t hard enough on trans people when the GOP loses control of the house in the midterms
I'm disturbed by that rag.
The NYT currently lacks the collective sense of self awareness to realize they've become literally a parody of the paper they once were. When the Onion does more long form journalism, less editorial, more fact checking, has a more balanced ideological rudder, and generally better writing and fewer TERFs, MAGAs, neo-Nazis, and gencrits, one simply has to question, what purpose does it serve except to provide a customer base for the Koch Industries, Inc. paper pulp tree farms in Confederate states?
Because... what selling proposition does it actually HAVE as MAGA LITE?!?
MAGAs want it down and dirty, they want their fascism and Nazi cuckporn hard and nasty, and only YouTube, Gateway Pundit, Newsmax, the Stormfront, and 8chan have it as vile, bloody, and stupid as they require. They don't even like OAN or Fox anymore, they're too libtard.
And most New Yorkers and literate folks have given up on the NYT. Most extant subscriptions are internet ghosts, legacies, and bots.
They no longer have an audience or a selling proposition.
There's no purpose to it.
My best friend who works as a trans advocate in FL asks: "I had read that the bill also stripped gender affirming care coverage from the government health plan marketplace. Do you know if that is true, and if it is, if it is still in there?"
That was removed earleir.
I was just going to ask this, that's great! Is there a source wher I can learn more about when/how that one was removed?
Thank you
I wonder just how much more wealth inequality this country can take before the guillotines come out. This bill is another turn of the screw...
Medical assistance benefits like all health-care coverage protect the public from untreated illnesses and the grief associated with illness and death. To a trans individual, GAC isn't just an abstract concept, be it so for these people claiming it's not a public-health matter, we don't have to make the rules based on a vocal minority of self-serving ignorance. I'm not going to hold back on enforcing the ideals of those who perceive the world and government as they really are.
Be very careful here. If Wyden's point of order had prevailed, the provision could not go back in the Act during conference. By pulling the sections here, the Republicans have cleverly left the conferees open to inserting them in conference. If a conference agreement with the provision goes back to the Senate, Wyden would need to ask for a Byrd point of order again.
We shall learn which states are the educated ones
Any updates? I saw that MTG introduced bill to bring it back
This is only a temporary victory. The real damage this bill has is a provision that will allow Trump to unilaterally suspend or cancel ANY election he wants to for ANY reason. This will be the nail in the coffin of OUR democracy.
But you are not “just asking questions”, are you? Seems disingenuous.
So they left something in Medicaid before gutting its funding. How big of them.
Might it be they pulled it because the FBI is creating a list of trans affirming care providers and going after them? They have many ways to accomplish their heinous goals.