Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who has targeted LGBTQ+ people during his 17 months in office, is one step closer to holding on to his job. Bailey beat Will Scharf in a Republican primary for state attorney general on Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump had endorsed both Bailey and Scharf on Truth Social.
Bailey was first appointed to the attorney general position by Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons (R) in January 2023. Since then, he has launched investigations against a children’s hospital, gym and retailer that provide services or a safe and affirming space for transgender Missourians.
One of the first actions Bailey took as attorney general was to attempt to investigate the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a former caseworker, Jamie Reed, accused the center of malpractice. Bailey gave Reed whistleblower protection and began asking the hospital for patient medical records; later, he also asked for information on therapists and social workers across the state who worked with trans youth. A Missouri judge eventually found that Bailey’s office had no right to private medical information.
Last year, Bailey also signed an emergency rule that created a burdensome set of requirements for trans people of all ages seeking gender-affirming care. He withdrew the emergency order only when the Republican-led legislature passed its own ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Medicaid recipients and incarcerated people.
Katy Erker-Lynch, the executive director of PROMO, a Missouri LGBTQ advocacy group, said Bailey’s actions have “created a hostile environment for medical providers where they are afraid to stay and practice medicine.”
And just days before the state’s primary election, Bailey sent out a stark warning to a St. Louis gym that had come under scrutiny from conservatives for allowing a transgender woman to use the women’s locker room.
“While it might be considered fashionable in certain corporate boardrooms to pretend that biology is irrelevant, the American heartland still lives in reality,” Bailey wrote in a statement to the company’s CEO.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has opposed efforts to release people from prison after courts have overturned their murder convictions.
Across the country, GOP state attorneys general have increasingly tried to use their power to make life more challenging for transgender people. Like Bailey, many have tried to use their consumer protection powers to obtain private medical information. A U.S. Senate Finance Committee report said that such officials were “weaponizing their oversight authorities for their own political gain, at the expense of LGBTQIA+ people and their families.”
Bailey was also one of 22 Republican attorneys general to sue the Biden administration over its new Title IX rules, which expand protections more explicitly for LGBTQ+ students in federally funded schools.
If Bailey wins in November, he will no doubt be able to continue his anti-trans crusade — along with his efforts to stomp out diversity programs and keep innocent people incarcerated — in the deep-red state.
Bailey will face Democrat Elad Gross in November. Gross has heavily criticized Bailey and other Republicans for how much their anti-transgender policies distract from issues that are important to everyday Missourians and has proposed launching a civil rights division that focuses on protecting LGBTQ+ residents against discrimination.
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