The Biden administration announced a new rule Friday expanding safeguards against potential discrimination of gay and transgender Americans seeking medical care, in a reversal of Trump-era limitations that nixed federal health protections for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
It protects gender-affirming care on a federal level, for one. It also makes it illegal to discriminate against transgender and nonbinary people pursuing gender-related care.
Okay that’s good news but how does that relate to states that do have bans on gender affirming care like Texas? Does this give the hospital room to fight or something?
It overrules them. States cannot enact laws that are contrary to federal law. The laws that the states created were legal due to the absence of federal law, thanks to Trump’s repeal.
Those states and Individual healthcare providers are 100% going to ignore those laws. I live in a red state and we routinely flout federal law.
And you can only really legislate against discrimination that people are stupid enough to document. They won’t say that they aren’t treating me because I’m trans, but because of some other reason. Just like the job that recently fired me and refused to pay me for ANY of the work I did, didn’t officially fire me because I’m trans :)
Bringing a case to court requires access to the financial means to hire a lawyer, or having a case egregious and documented enough to find a lawyer to work for you pro bono.
And you won’t be able to sue at all if you die because they refuse you care (I guess your family can 🤷♂️) - there have been multiple cases of transgender women dying because EMTs refused to treat.
Red states don’t operate by rule of law. Oklahoma had a police department recorded talking about how much they wanted to kill black folks last year, pretty much nothing happened.
I mean obviously that’s good news but how does this change anything besides adding additional guidelines to what a healthcare provider can refuse
It protects gender-affirming care on a federal level, for one. It also makes it illegal to discriminate against transgender and nonbinary people pursuing gender-related care.
Okay that’s good news but how does that relate to states that do have bans on gender affirming care like Texas? Does this give the hospital room to fight or something?
It overrules them. States cannot enact laws that are contrary to federal law. The laws that the states created were legal due to the absence of federal law, thanks to Trump’s repeal.
Those states and Individual healthcare providers are 100% going to ignore those laws. I live in a red state and we routinely flout federal law.
And you can only really legislate against discrimination that people are stupid enough to document. They won’t say that they aren’t treating me because I’m trans, but because of some other reason. Just like the job that recently fired me and refused to pay me for ANY of the work I did, didn’t officially fire me because I’m trans :)
They will lose if a case is brought to court.
Bringing a case to court requires access to the financial means to hire a lawyer, or having a case egregious and documented enough to find a lawyer to work for you pro bono.
And you won’t be able to sue at all if you die because they refuse you care (I guess your family can 🤷♂️) - there have been multiple cases of transgender women dying because EMTs refused to treat.
Red states don’t operate by rule of law. Oklahoma had a police department recorded talking about how much they wanted to kill black folks last year, pretty much nothing happened.