Republicans are desperate to hide their failures to lead during the COVID-19 pandemic (and in general) and have latched themselves onto an explicitly anti-trans (and anti-queer) platform just in time for midterm elections in November. Conservatives have cozied up to a number of anti-trans rallying cries in order to attack both young people and adults from all sides. As Daily Kos continues to cover, bills and laws tend to target trans girls participating in girls’ sports, trans people accessing safe, gender-affirming health care, and trans folks having access to bathrooms.
Thanks in part to far-right conservative conspiracy theorists like the infamous Libs of TikTok, hospitals, and providers who are offering safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming care to trans youth have quite literally come under attack. Hospitals have had to field threats and harassment, and some have lulled services and resources in an effort to protect both staff and patients. We already have research on how deeply necessary—and life-saving—gender-affirming care can be for trans folks, and we’ve already heard from trans people themselves about why it’s so necessary. And yet Republicans won’t stop.
This framing brings us to the current situation unfolding in Arkansas. On Monday, the first trial in the United States over a state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth begins in Arkansas. The law, misleadingly called the SAFE Act, bars physicians from providing gender-affirming care to people under 18, including puberty blockers and hormonal treatments, and also stops them from offering referrals elsewhere. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
RELATED: Far-right Dan Cox insists kindergarteners are being indoctrinated into being trans
U.S. District Judge Jay Moody is set to hear evidence and testimony starting on Monday. Moody, you might recall, temporarily blocked the law from going into effect last year. The restrictive, discriminatory law infringes on free speech for physicians, as well as oversteps the rights of parents to make medical decisions for minors. It also, obviously, discriminates against trans youth.
Two physicians, along with four families of trans youth, sued the state of Arkansas on these bases. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Arkansas, the Walas Law Farm, Gill Ragon Owen, and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP are representing them.
Parent Lacey Jennen, whose teenage daughter has received gender-affirming care, said in an interview with Associated Press that she never expected to have to fight for her daughter to be able to receive care her doctor believes is medically necessary. And, just as importantly, care that her daughter actively wants as well.
Parent Mo Banks, who is non-binary and has an openly trans daughter, told TIME in an interview that “there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by since the bill was introduced that I haven’t worried about the safety of my kid.” Banks added that no parent should have to deal with this.
The legal situation surrounding trans health care has been extremely complicated as of late. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson actually vetoed the ban on trans health care last year. But Republican lawmakers overrode his veto and enacted the measure into law themselves. From there, in August, a three-judge panel in appeals court upheld a ruling from Moody to temporarily block the state from actually enforcing the law. Now, the state of Arkansas has requested the full 8th Circuit appeals court review the case.
Imagine if conservatives fought this hard for anything that wasn’t rooted in hate?