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Oklahoma Republicans stomp down on trans youth and pledge to do even more damage come winter [1]
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Date: 2022-10-05
What are the details? On Tuesday, Stitt signed Senate Bill 3, a bill banning the federal funds from going to a hospital in his state that provides safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming to trans youth. This care includes things like hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and gender-affirming surgeries, which don’t typically happen before the age of 18 anyway. The law went into effect immediately upon signing.
The University of Oklahoma Medical Center offers gender-affirming care for people up to 24 years old. But thanks to Stitt, the health care provider was essentially held hostage into no longer providing said care—unless they wanted to sacrifice $39 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
"It is wildly inappropriate for taxpayer dollars to be used for condoning, promoting, or performing these types of controversial procedures on healthy children,” Stitt said in part in a statement.
Notably, the federal money wasn’t even going toward gender-affirming care.
Even still, the center released a statement saying it has stopped providing prescriptions for hormones and any gender-affirming surgical procedures for people under 18 since Stitt signed the legislation. Youth are missing out on valuable care, and Stitt still tells himself—and voters—that he’s protecting kids. In reality, every move like this hurts them.
“By signing this bill today,” Stitt added per a statement. “We are taking the first step to protect children from permanent gender transition surgeries and therapies.”
x I just signed SB3 to prevent gender transition services for minors at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital at OU Health.
This is just the first step.
I am calling on the Legislature to ban all irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies on minors statewide. — Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) October 4, 2022
And here’s the thing: Republicans repeat the same fearmongering language every time discussions about trans health care come up. You’ll see words like “permanent” and “mutilation” and “irreversible” and “obscene” and “inappropriate” and “child abuse,” and you’ll likely start to notice the same sort of rhetoric comes up when looking at conservative efforts to ban books and Critical Race Theory… and that’s because demonizing and isolating anyone who is remotely “other” is the Republican baseline, especially around election season. It’s sick, and it’s painfully transparent.
Rep. Mauree Turner, who represents House District 88, called out Stitt’s evil move in a Twitter thread, where they point out in part that: “Our government hasn't just failed us, it is deliberately waging a war on us. And we cannot continue to pretend this is normal.” Whew.
x And I truly believe we will figure out how to solve for the gaps in care.
Because 2SLGBTQ+ people always have.
And we should never have to.
Our government hasn't just failed us, it is deliberately waging a war on us. And we cannot continue to pretend this is normal.
8/8 — Mauree Turner | They / Them (@MaureeTurnerOK) October 4, 2022
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