With Defense Legislation, Democrats Have Now Capitulated on Transgender Rights
Senators allow passage of first anti-LGBTQ bill in 30 years
Although they had often defended the rights of LGBTQ+ and transgender Americans in the recent past, Democrats have quietly caved on the issue and quietly approved the first federal anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in decades.
Senate Democrats approved an annual authorization bill for the coming year that includes language that bans health care for transgender kids and TRICARE patients under the age of 18. TRICARE is the healthcare program for people associated with the US military.
And Senate Democrats did so without even allowing a vote on an amendment that would have stripped this language and protected servicemembers’ parental rights to access medically necessary health care for their transgender children.
This anti-trans measure is the first federal anti-LGBTQ+ legislation to pass in 30 years.
Although Senate Democrats could have been counted on in the past to protect transgender rights in the recent past, Donald Trump and his allies attacked Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats ahead of last month’s elections with a massive barrage of anti-trans political advertising.
Their losses in those elections have caused some Democrats to wobble on support for transgender rights.
Sen Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis), the only openly LGBTQ+ senator, offered an amendment to reverse the block on transgender healthcare, and attracted 24 of her colleagues to support it.
However, in the end not only was a vote on the Baldwin amendment not allowed, many of those senators who initially backed her amendment, in the end voted for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with the anti-trans provision.
“Our country’s safety and support for our servicemembers and their families has always been – and should be – politics-free,” Baldwin said, after the vote. “And in this year's annual defense bill, we had a lot of bipartisan agreement. This bill has some great things for our servicemembers, my home state of Wisconsin, and measures that I have long pushed for, including a pay raise for troops, increasing access to contraception and mental health care, investments in Wisconsin’s military installations, and improving Buy America standards for our national defense programs that will support Wisconsin businesses and workers.
“But, despite all the common ground we found – some folks poisoned this bill and turned their backs on those in service with a partisan provision that will rip away the rights of our servicemembers to get the health care their kids need,” she added. “I cannot support this bill, turn my back on these families, and take away parents’ right to get the healthcare they need for their kids.”
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