Hawaii is stepping up. I love how the bill is framed as "big tent" that benefits all, not just trans people. The League of Women's Voters just posted a similar and equally powerful declaration about Trans rights on its website - https://www.lwv.org/blog/trans-rights-are-essential-healthy-democracy
This is great news - however I would just caution that it is unknown how well state shield laws will play out legally over time. The right wing surely wants to push challenges regarding shield laws to SCOTUS, where they expect a ruling that will comply with the right-wing agenda.
At the very least, it will slow the fascists down while litigation winds its way through the courts- and every speedbump thrown in their path is a few more lives saved. The political right has understood for decades the value of passing laws that they know will be challenged, even if they know they'll lose in the end- we've got to take that page from their playbook. Make them fight us everywhere, on everything. Exhaust their resources putting out brush fires. Turn their own tactics against them, and throw legislation at the wall until something sticks.
Hawaii's House Bill 1875, also known as Act 59, is a major victory for LGBTQ+ communities and for the fundamental right to medical privacy. The law expands Hawaii's existing shield protections to include gender-affirming health care, helping ensure that patients and providers are protected from out-of-state investigations, lawsuits, and political attacks aimed at denying people access to lawful medical care.
What makes this law especially important is that it doesn't just protect Hawaiians. It also provides protections for individuals who travel to Hawaii seeking legally available health care that may be restricted or targeted in their home states. By limiting the disclosure of protected health information and preventing certain forms of cooperation with out-of-state efforts to punish patients or providers, Hawaii is standing firmly on the side of privacy, bodily autonomy, and equal treatment under the law.
At a time when transgender Americans are facing increasing political and legal attacks across the country, Hawaii has chosen a different path—one that respects personal medical decisions and recognizes that private health care information should remain private. This law is a significant step forward for a community that has too often been targeted for simply wanting to live their lives authentically and access medically necessary care.
The bill is generally described as a "shield law" because it extends protections against certain out-of-state legal actions and strengthens privacy protections related to reproductive and gender-affirming care.
Small but significant-to-us clarification from a lifetime Honolulu resident - "Hawaiian," as referring to people, only describes those who are ethnically of Native Hawaiian descent. Citizens of the state who are not Native should be called Kamaʻāina, Hawai'i residents, or locals. Thanks :)
Pattern: Federal judges keep blocking the worst of it; the administration has ignored court orders at least 31 times. The defiance is the strategy.
Timeline: A new State Department gag rule threatens $39.8 billion in foreign aid over "gender ideology." The Bureau of Prisons banned hormone therapy for trans inmates. DOGE staffers testified they used ChatGPT to flag and cut LGBTQ grants. A Moroccan lesbian asylum-seeker was deported through Cameroon, where same-sex conduct draws five years. I mean wtf. HOW did we get here?
And it kept getting uglier. The broligarch's FCC floated warning labels on any TV show that so much as mentions a trans character — Y-rated cartoons included. The CDC clawed back $600 million in HIV and STD funding. Prosecutors subpoenaed NYU Langone for the records of every patient under 18 who got gender-affirming care since 2020, and Texas Children's paid over $10 million to make its own investigation vanish. Then the White House counterterror strategy went and branded trans people the domestic threat — while scrubbing white supremacists from the page entirely — and signed off with "We Will Find You and We Will Kill You."
Sounds like Hawai'i is setting the new gold standard for shield laws- here's hoping a few more blue states catch a clue and take some notes.
Terrific report and great news. Thanks, S. Baum.
Hawaii is stepping up. I love how the bill is framed as "big tent" that benefits all, not just trans people. The League of Women's Voters just posted a similar and equally powerful declaration about Trans rights on its website - https://www.lwv.org/blog/trans-rights-are-essential-healthy-democracy
This is great news - however I would just caution that it is unknown how well state shield laws will play out legally over time. The right wing surely wants to push challenges regarding shield laws to SCOTUS, where they expect a ruling that will comply with the right-wing agenda.
At the very least, it will slow the fascists down while litigation winds its way through the courts- and every speedbump thrown in their path is a few more lives saved. The political right has understood for decades the value of passing laws that they know will be challenged, even if they know they'll lose in the end- we've got to take that page from their playbook. Make them fight us everywhere, on everything. Exhaust their resources putting out brush fires. Turn their own tactics against them, and throw legislation at the wall until something sticks.
IMO what happens in another State (e.g. Hawai’i ) is outside of the jurisdiction of any other State (e.g. Texas)
Mahalo
Hawaii's House Bill 1875, also known as Act 59, is a major victory for LGBTQ+ communities and for the fundamental right to medical privacy. The law expands Hawaii's existing shield protections to include gender-affirming health care, helping ensure that patients and providers are protected from out-of-state investigations, lawsuits, and political attacks aimed at denying people access to lawful medical care.
What makes this law especially important is that it doesn't just protect Hawaiians. It also provides protections for individuals who travel to Hawaii seeking legally available health care that may be restricted or targeted in their home states. By limiting the disclosure of protected health information and preventing certain forms of cooperation with out-of-state efforts to punish patients or providers, Hawaii is standing firmly on the side of privacy, bodily autonomy, and equal treatment under the law.
At a time when transgender Americans are facing increasing political and legal attacks across the country, Hawaii has chosen a different path—one that respects personal medical decisions and recognizes that private health care information should remain private. This law is a significant step forward for a community that has too often been targeted for simply wanting to live their lives authentically and access medically necessary care.
The bill is generally described as a "shield law" because it extends protections against certain out-of-state legal actions and strengthens privacy protections related to reproductive and gender-affirming care.
Congratulations Hawaii
Small but significant-to-us clarification from a lifetime Honolulu resident - "Hawaiian," as referring to people, only describes those who are ethnically of Native Hawaiian descent. Citizens of the state who are not Native should be called Kamaʻāina, Hawai'i residents, or locals. Thanks :)
Finally some good news
I mean, at the core, we are still within the 366-500 day window.
https://thistleandmoss.com/p/what-survives-the-morning-the-burning-ledger-and-the-green-that-keeps-coming-back#queerisms-where-are-we-today
Pattern: Federal judges keep blocking the worst of it; the administration has ignored court orders at least 31 times. The defiance is the strategy.
Timeline: A new State Department gag rule threatens $39.8 billion in foreign aid over "gender ideology." The Bureau of Prisons banned hormone therapy for trans inmates. DOGE staffers testified they used ChatGPT to flag and cut LGBTQ grants. A Moroccan lesbian asylum-seeker was deported through Cameroon, where same-sex conduct draws five years. I mean wtf. HOW did we get here?
And it kept getting uglier. The broligarch's FCC floated warning labels on any TV show that so much as mentions a trans character — Y-rated cartoons included. The CDC clawed back $600 million in HIV and STD funding. Prosecutors subpoenaed NYU Langone for the records of every patient under 18 who got gender-affirming care since 2020, and Texas Children's paid over $10 million to make its own investigation vanish. Then the White House counterterror strategy went and branded trans people the domestic threat — while scrubbing white supremacists from the page entirely — and signed off with "We Will Find You and We Will Kill You."
Thank you for highlighting our success!
Thanks for this good news!
Good news.
Thank you Baum.
We're not "The Rainbow State" for nothin'!
Wonderful news ❤️