Good faith bill would outlaw discrimination in medical care and insurance coverage

SB 1511, the "Detransitioner Bill of Rights,” guarantees equality of care and coverage for overlooked, underserved people.

In a March 31 opinion piece, activist Christiana Hammond accuses supporters of SB 1511 of “bad faith.” In what has become tragically par for the course in public discourse today, the accusation was more projection than sound argument.

Good faith means trusting your readers to come to informed conclusions when presented with the facts. Sadly, Hammond decided against presenting facts, and instead described a bill that barely resembles the “Detransitioner Bill of Rights” sponsored by Sen. Janae Shamp, R-Surprise.

The truth is that SB 1511 is a simple “good faith” bill that levels the health care playing field for a vulnerable population of Arizonans and takes the politics out of medicine and insurance coverage.

The purpose of SB 1511 is not to pronounce judgment about the merits or the dangers of gender transition. And it doesn’t. Rather, it does what a law is supposed to do solve a real problem affecting real people.

Chloe Cole and Richard Anumene began transitioning at early ages. But they both later came to feel comfortable living in alignment with their birth sex and began the process of detransitioning.

Chloe had a double mastectomy at age 15 after being on testosterone from age 13. She describes the persistent complications she continues to experience as a “massive battlefield on my body.”

Richard had a vaginoplasty and other surgeries to feminize his appearance. He suffers “ongoing medical complications [to] include frequent bleeding, urinary incontinence, and urinary tract infections.” Richard spent Christmas in the ER to receive treatment for yet another infection.

While they received immediate and consistent attention from the medical establishment as transgender-identifying people, they have faced obstacles and even been “ghosted” by doctors as their lives took a different turn and their health care needs changed.

SB 1511 doesn’t “jeopardize” anyone’s “personal access to health care,” as Hammond falsely claims. In fact, it does just the opposite. SB 1511 guarantees equality of care and coverage for overlooked and underserved people like Chloe and Richard and holds medical providers and insurers accountable should they discriminate.

The number of people seeking chemical and surgical interventions for gender transition has risen in recent years. This growth has been particularly pronounced among minors and young adults under 25. Many of them have been put on a regimen of experimental drugs and have undergone disfiguring surgeries that often result in long-term consequences.

As you’d expect, with the number of “transitioners” growing, the number of people who have in the past identified as transgender but have returned to living in alignment with their biological sex “detransitioners” is also growing.

However, while those pursuing medical transition to identify with the opposite sex find support from all the powerful institutions, detransitioners have been marginalized and face discrimination in the hyper-politicized medical and insurance industries.

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund reports that,“Virtually all major insurance companies recognize that transgender-related medical care is medically necessary and have a written policy describing their criteria for when plans they administer will cover.”

But, as detransitioner Prisha Mosley has pointed out, “there is an ICD code for being ‘bitten by an orca’ but not for [detransition-related care]. Thanks, medical community.”

Detransitioners deserve equality of care and coverage to treat the long-term harms they live with every day. SB1511 guarantees justice for detransitioners by protecting them from discrimination by medical providers and insurers.

The bill is so commonsensical that it received bipartisan support in the Senate Health and Human Services (HHS) committee. Of course, lobbyists that are comfortable denying care to detransitioners worked overtime to ensure the bill passed along party lines in the senate. Interestingly, groups opposed to the bill sent no one to testify against it in the House HHS hearing. Understandable. It’s a bad look to publicly oppose equality in health care and coverage.

For a movement that demands “visibility” and insists it “exists,” it’s hypocritical to pretend that others on their own identity journey are not real, and worse, should not receive the health care they need. Even if there are vanishingly few detransitioners, as Hammond claims, why would that matter? Should they suffer because they are few? Is that an argument an advocate of transgender ideology really wants to entertain?

The only “good faith” position is to support the right of everyoneincluding detransitionersto receive the medical care and insurance coverage they need free from the discrimination and marginalization they currently face.

Greg Scott is Vice President of Policy at Center for Arizona Policy. Follow him on X.com at @gscottsays.

 

Copyright © 2024 BridgeTower Media. All Rights Reserved.