This year, it has felt like anti-trans legislation has moved unimpeded. In Wyoming though, activists successfully pushed back and became the first red state to defeat a trans healthcare ban.
Erin Reed
34 min ago
Wyoming State Capitol from the Wyoming Department of Health Website
https://erininthemorn.substack.com/p/tr ... or-victory
This year, it has seemed like healthcare bans for transgender youth have been moving unimpeded through state houses. Already, four states have banned gender affirming care in 2023 for transgender people under 18 years old: Utah, South Dakota, Mississippi, and Florida. Several more states have seen bills fly through committees and legislative chambers, leaving activists to wonder if anti-trans healthcare bans could be defeated in any state with a Republican trifecta. That question was answered by activists in Wyoming, who scored a huge victory and made Wyoming the first state controlled by Republicans to block an anti-trans healthcare ban.
Wyoming SF0144 was a bill that would have banned gender affirming care for transgender youth in the state. It would have prevented insurance policies from covering gender affirming care for trans youth and would have stripped the licenses of any doctors offering such care. The bill would have threatened mental and physical essential healthcare as spelled out by 29 different medical organizations that support gender affirming care. Like several other bills moving in multiple states, it would have immensely harmed transgender youth.
Unlike other states though, Republicans balked at the far reaching nature of the bill and sharply questioned the sponsor. When presenting his bill, Senator Anthony Buchard (R) could not get past the second page before Republicans on the committee noted extreme problems with the bill. Representative Lloyd Larsen (R) pointed out that the bill could threaten mental healthcare and counseling for trans youth, and Senator Buchard indicated that he would be fine with that. Representative Clark Stith (R) indicated that the bill could put federally regulated insurance plans on the health insurance marketplace at risk, threatening all of Wyoming’s providers and raising premiums. The state insurance commissioner acted as an informational witness and raised the same concerns. The entire committee, made up mostly of Republicans, seemed to express dissatisfaction with the inclusion of hormone therapy and puberty blockers in the bill.