A bill moving through North Carolina previously would have banned state facilities from providing gender affirming care to trans youth. Now, the senate has amended it to be a total ban on care.
I feel like they’re doing the thing that they know will get it tossed on purpose. They don’t want to be the dog that caught the car, but they do want to make sure their base sees them chasing the car. So, they pass legislation they know will get tossed under the 14th amendment, just like the rest. Then they can say, “we did the thing, but THEY ruined it!” They’ll blame it on socialism or something. The bostock decision really stitched all this up very neatly for us.
My sister (now gone) had a condition that required her to be on HRT as soon as puberty started. It was severe enough that she would have died without treatment (and a hysterectomy as an early tean).
So this hits me twice, as a trans woman and sibling of a cis woman who would have been impacted by this law.
Erin, further context as a trans health provider in NC - there is a second bill, also likely to pass, SB 631 that specifically bans gender affirming care coming from state institutions such as UNC. In addition, part of the context for the sudden resurgence of these bills, as well as the previous 12 week abortion ban, has to do with representative Cotham, who ran as a pro-choice democrat, switched parties extremely suddenly, pushing the state over into a veto-proof majority.
Myself and other providers are scrambling to try and find our patients care avenues in a state surrounded by inhospitable environments for trans care for minors, so please continue to write on what’s happening here.
Looks like they folded those restrictions into this one, and I'm afraid that even though we got a carve out for treatment plans already in progress it still won't be possible to continue treatment with UNC.
Thank you for helning Transgender youth at all, it’s not easy to find transgender friendly providers outside the big metropolitan areas.... this will make it hell for everyone.
Well, NC was reluctant until recently when Trish Cotham, elected as a Democrat by Charlotte (Mecklenburg County) voters running a “I’m very LGBT friendly and believe in reproductive rights” platform SWITCHED parties giving republicans a veto proof supermajority. So shady.
Idk how the judicial boundaries work for this, but supposing we get a judge that doesn’t care and upholds this law? What kind of chaos would that cause? Would this force the case to the scotus? We’ve seen that they don’t want to seem to rule on these right now.
One of these is going to get through. It’s just a matter of time imo. Consistency with the judicial branch is paramount. But I think it will fail at some point.
They seem to be inclined to call cases as constitutionally as possible. All the other federal judges have agreed, you cannot take certain care away from a certain group of people, you’d have to take it from all people, otherwise it violates the equal protection clause. And you can’t apply rules to one group that you won’t apply to another group, for the same reason.
Abortion doesn’t fall under equal protection because the banned it from everyone. Not JUST one sect of the population. That’s why they can’t ban trans care. Because cis people get the same treatments and surgeries for different reasons quite often. They’d have to ban treating men for low testosterone, women with PCOS, or going through menopause, teenage boys with gynecomastia, and children with precocious puberty or born with an intersex condition, who have conservative parents who feel entitled to choose their child’s gender, and make them endure painful surgeries because they want a boy, or a girl.
In order to ban our care, and be compliant with 14A, politicians would have to put a stop to ALL of that, and that would piss off their base in a very large way.
Truly unbelievable BS. I am beyond outraged, at this point. There are too many of these proposals becoming law, in too many states, in a "free country"? Damn it, friends, we have not yet begun to fight this crap. I swear on my life, we will prevail.
This is a frightening and sad development, and is a clear indication of the mayhem for trans people that can be created when there is a GOP veto-proof majority in a state. It can only be hoped that judicial challenges will be pursued, and that they will be successful, similar to the way other situations in other states have ended up
I feel like they’re doing the thing that they know will get it tossed on purpose. They don’t want to be the dog that caught the car, but they do want to make sure their base sees them chasing the car. So, they pass legislation they know will get tossed under the 14th amendment, just like the rest. Then they can say, “we did the thing, but THEY ruined it!” They’ll blame it on socialism or something. The bostock decision really stitched all this up very neatly for us.
Well said
My sister (now gone) had a condition that required her to be on HRT as soon as puberty started. It was severe enough that she would have died without treatment (and a hysterectomy as an early tean).
So this hits me twice, as a trans woman and sibling of a cis woman who would have been impacted by this law.
Erin, further context as a trans health provider in NC - there is a second bill, also likely to pass, SB 631 that specifically bans gender affirming care coming from state institutions such as UNC. In addition, part of the context for the sudden resurgence of these bills, as well as the previous 12 week abortion ban, has to do with representative Cotham, who ran as a pro-choice democrat, switched parties extremely suddenly, pushing the state over into a veto-proof majority.
Myself and other providers are scrambling to try and find our patients care avenues in a state surrounded by inhospitable environments for trans care for minors, so please continue to write on what’s happening here.
-Katherine
Looks like they folded those restrictions into this one, and I'm afraid that even though we got a carve out for treatment plans already in progress it still won't be possible to continue treatment with UNC.
Thank you for helning Transgender youth at all, it’s not easy to find transgender friendly providers outside the big metropolitan areas.... this will make it hell for everyone.
Well, NC was reluctant until recently when Trish Cotham, elected as a Democrat by Charlotte (Mecklenburg County) voters running a “I’m very LGBT friendly and believe in reproductive rights” platform SWITCHED parties giving republicans a veto proof supermajority. So shady.
Idk how the judicial boundaries work for this, but supposing we get a judge that doesn’t care and upholds this law? What kind of chaos would that cause? Would this force the case to the scotus? We’ve seen that they don’t want to seem to rule on these right now.
One of these is going to get through. It’s just a matter of time imo. Consistency with the judicial branch is paramount. But I think it will fail at some point.
They seem to be inclined to call cases as constitutionally as possible. All the other federal judges have agreed, you cannot take certain care away from a certain group of people, you’d have to take it from all people, otherwise it violates the equal protection clause. And you can’t apply rules to one group that you won’t apply to another group, for the same reason.
Abortion. All it takes is one judge, like in Texas, to be, “nah, lol”.
But yes I agree with you. The trend does look that way. But bigotry knows no bounds either.
Abortion doesn’t fall under equal protection because the banned it from everyone. Not JUST one sect of the population. That’s why they can’t ban trans care. Because cis people get the same treatments and surgeries for different reasons quite often. They’d have to ban treating men for low testosterone, women with PCOS, or going through menopause, teenage boys with gynecomastia, and children with precocious puberty or born with an intersex condition, who have conservative parents who feel entitled to choose their child’s gender, and make them endure painful surgeries because they want a boy, or a girl.
In order to ban our care, and be compliant with 14A, politicians would have to put a stop to ALL of that, and that would piss off their base in a very large way.
Texas has just introduced a bill in the second special session that is really bad too.
https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB21/2023/X2
Truly unbelievable BS. I am beyond outraged, at this point. There are too many of these proposals becoming law, in too many states, in a "free country"? Damn it, friends, we have not yet begun to fight this crap. I swear on my life, we will prevail.
This is a frightening and sad development, and is a clear indication of the mayhem for trans people that can be created when there is a GOP veto-proof majority in a state. It can only be hoped that judicial challenges will be pursued, and that they will be successful, similar to the way other situations in other states have ended up