Photo: Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendoner
In response to the Mother Jones article that exposed leaked emails detailing how religious-right groups targeted transgender healthcare, the Los Angeles LGBT Center issued the following statement:
Across this country in statehouses and in Congress, approximately 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation have been introduced, with almost 300 of them explicitly targeting the transgender community. The intention of these bills has never been clearer: These are outright attacks with the explicit intent to harm members of the transgender community. While these conservative groups have a demonstrated history of bias and vitriol, the data released from these far-right groups are shocking revelations of unprecedented discrimination and coordinated campaigns that have been created to target our community at all costs.
These bills (and now, laws) seek to: restrict life-saving gender affirming care (for minors and adults) by physicians and health insurers, criminalize doctors for providing said care, refuse CDC funding for HIV prevention, and criminalize drag performances by classifying them as adult-oriented cabaret. In states like Arizona, drag artists would be subject to at least 10 years in prison and would be forced to register as sex offenders if attendees under the age of 15 are present. There have been hundreds of laws introduced which aim to bar transgender people from participating in high school sports and erase LGBTQ+ and BIPOC history from education—while forcibly redefining ‘womanhood’ and continuing to ban access to reproductive services.
Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendoner said, “The far right is intentionally scapegoating the transgender community with bigotry-emboldened political tactics. We need our local community and all of us across the country to understand we will win this fight, and no amount of legislation will undermine our richness and resilience. We must take action now to oppose these proposed laws and challenge the ones that have already passed.”
Columbia University research shows that gender-affirming care—a medical and psychosocial health care designed to affirm individuals’ gender identities—greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents. Overall, numerous research studies have found that gender-affirming care leads to improved mental health among TGNB youth and should thus be considered essential healthcare. It is also backed by numerous legitimate medical institutions, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Ready to help fight back? Join the Center’s Resistance Squad today by texting ‘RESIST’ to 33339.
