Betrayal

Congressional Democrats sacrifice trans kids in the name of "National Defense".

Tonight, Erin Reed broke the news that eight-one Democrats in the House of Representatives voted for the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes the following text regarding TRICARE, the program through which servicemembers and their families are provided healthcare:

Medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18.

This is an effective ban on puberty blockers and HRT for children of service members, despite, again, every major medical organization in the country recommending it under the right circumstances. Not only does this ban the care itself, but it attempts to establish a precedent that Congress can act as the ultimate Medical Board, overriding all medical professionals as to the best practices in their field. Such an obscene power can and will be abused in the future, just as it is being abused in this instance.

But back to those Democrats. Believe it or not, 16 Republicans¹ voted “no” on the bill. Meaning that if Democrats had held strong, the bill would have failed. Instead, they threw trans people under the bus, accepting dead American kids as collateral damage in the name of defending the country.

What I’m Doing in Response

Representative Pete Aguilar, of California’s 33rd District. Apparently, his sign needs amended to say, “For Some of the People.” Or maybe “For the Cisgender People.”

Tonight, I sent the following email to my congressman, Representative Pete Aguilar, of California’s 33rd District. He is one of the Democrats among those 81, and he has been far too quiet about trans rights generally.

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Representative Aguilar -

You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself, and you owe the thousands of trans people in your district an apology. Your vote on the NDAA (https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/81-democrats-voted-to-pull-care-from) sacrifices trans kids in the name of defending the country.

Not only that, but it also attacks the very idea that health care is a human right, by allowing congress to override the consensus view on gender affirming care endorsed by every major medical organization in this country. If they congress can do this on gender affirming care, they can do it on anything.

Ironically, you passed a bill meant to defend the country, but now we see clearly: the threat this country is facing is our own elected leaders, including those like you who throw a tiny, ultra-marginalized group under the bus for... what, exactly? You didn't say a word to explain why this was needed. Did you even know it was happening?

As a transgender woman and mother of a non-binary teenager, I emailed you recently to ask why you weren't standing up for the trans community and never heard back. I said that if you did not, I would do what I could to make sure there is a viable primary challenger to you next election. I want you to know that I spent most of my evening researching what that would look like and will be continuing that work in the days ahead. You cannot expect Democrats to support you when you will strip our rights just as easily as Republicans will.

All that to say - shame on you for this complete betrayal of our country's values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, all of which you weakened today.

With no respect at all,

Celeste Irwin

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Is it angry? You bet. And I’m ok with that. Because this is a complete betrayal of the ethics we expect of our so-called “leaders”. I encourage you all to check Erin Reed’s list to see if your congressperson is on it, and if they are, to write/call them to say something similar (feel free to take whatever you want of the message I sent). I will be calling his office tomorrow (both California and DC offices) to say something similar. I will also contact the White House to tell President Joe Biden to veto the bill.

Tomorrow, I start researching what it looks like to run for Congress, or if there are viable challengers already working toward it.

-Celeste

1. And yes, I’m equally upset at all the Republicans who voted for this, but that was expected, given the Republican party’s open embrace of anti-trans policies.