Category: Gender-Affirming Care

Dr. Oz is trying to take gender-affirming care coverage away from trans Medicaid recipients

*This is being reported by LGBTQNation.

Mehmet Oz, the newly confirmed administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is telling state Medicaid officials to stop covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Medicaid is the joint state-federal program that covers health care for people with low incomes, including 40% of minors in the U.S.

A letter sent from the CMS to state Medicaid directors said that the program should stop reimbursing gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical interventions. The letter says that there is an “underdeveloped body of evidence” supporting gender-affirming care despite the research showing that it’s a safe and effective treatment for gender dysphoria, which is supported by all major medical organizations in the U.S. The letter also cites the U.K.’s “Cass review,” a report on gender-affirming care that has been criticized for its bias against transgender people.

In a statement, Oz – who was confirmed by the Senate earlier this month – said that gender-affirming care can lead to sterilization, and that’s why the CMS is cracking down on it.

“Medicaid dollars are not to be used for gender reassignment surgeries or hormone treatments in minors – procedures that can cause permanent, irreversible harm, including sterilization. CMS will not support services that violate this standard or place vulnerable children at risk.”

Republicans in the Senate at first balked at Oz’s nomination, not due to his lack of qualifications for leading the agency but because he had, on television, expressed more liberal views when it came to acknowledging that trans kids exist and supporting reproductive freedom. The White House assured Senate Republicans that Oz is now transphobic.

Taking away health care from trans minors in low-income families just a week into his tenure at the CMS may reassure Republicans of Oz’s conservative credentials.

In January, the president signed an executive order targeting gender-affirming care for trans minors and some young adults. The order told the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – under which the CMS is organized – to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children,” including by changing “Medicare or Medicaid conditions of participation or conditions for coverage.” Referring to gender-affirming care as “mutilation” is a tactic used by anti-transgender activists to sway public opinion against the care that has been shown to save lives.

Former HHS official Adrian Shanker, who worked at the department under former President Joe Biden, said that the CMS letter misuses regulations to limit gender-affirming care coverage.

“I don’t think this letter is using those regulations in good faith,” Shanker told Advocate. “This letter is using highly politicized language that is not grounded in the mountain of evidence that supports the underlying health and well-being of trans youth.”

“It frankly looks like a campaign document,” he continued. “It looks like a document written by anti-trans activists rather than by public health professionals and health care leaders.”

Shanker pointed out that the letter itself is not legally binding but that it will lead states to cut off coverage for gender-affirming care.

“The significant fear here is that this ‘Dear State Medicaid Director’ letter will be utilized to preclude access to care even further in some states,” he said. “And the risk of that is actually very significant because we have incredible amounts of data that confirms the health impacts of denying access to care for trans youth.”

In 2015, trans reality TV personality and author Jazz Jennings appeared on Oz’s talk show, and he complimented her mother for being supportive.

“I love the support you’ve given your daughter,” Oz said. “It’s wonderful. And you can see the beautiful young woman she’s becoming because of it.”

This was before Oz entered the political realm. The exchange, though, led to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sending a letter demanding the administration explain the ten-year-old episode.

“Have your views on this issue changed since you hosted your television show?” Hawley’s letter demanded, asking if Oz supports the administration’s position that “gender transition procedures for minors should be banned.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the White House said that Oz would follow the president’s views on the matter, saying that everyone in the administration will follow his “playbook.”

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Montana Republicans Say No to Prosecuting Parents for Trans Care

*This is reported by Mother Jones.

Five days after President Donald Trump declared “gender ideology” to be “one of the most prevalent forms of child abuse,” Montana’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives killed a bill that would have enshrined much the same idea into state law by criminalizing parents and medical providers.

Montana Senate Bill 164 would have made it a felony for any adult to help transgender children under 16 to gain access to gender-affirming medical care—including hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries—classifying such help as child endangerment. On Tuesday, House lawmakers voted 58-40 to reject the proposed law, with 17 Republicans joining Democrats to block it from advancing to its final reading. 

“I think it’s overly broad,” the lone Republican to speak against the bill, Rep. Brad Barker, said Tuesday. Barker said that while he generally opposes gender-affirming care for trans youth, SB164 was “the wrong approach.” 

“I don’t like the thought of criminalizing parents,” Barker added, entreating fellow Republicans to “vote with your conscience.” 

The bill carried penalties of up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines for any adults, including parents and doctors, who provided children with surgery, puberty blockers, or hormone replacement therapy for the purpose of “altering the appearance” of the child or affirming the child’s gender. If “serious bodily injury” occurred, the maximum punishment was 10 years imprisonment and $25,000 in fines.

“Turning parents and doctors into felons is absolutely not the approach that best serves this state,” Democratic Rep. SJ Howell, the first non-binary person to be elected to the Montana legislature, said on the House floor.

The bill cleared the Senate in February, 30-20, with two Republicans voting against it. In that floor debate, the legislation’s sponsor, Republican Sen. John Fuller, called it a “simple bill” to protect Montana’s children. “The state does have a compelling interest, a very compelling interest, to avoid the sterilization and sexual mutilation of children,” he said. In 2023, Fuller sponsored a law that threatened medical providers’ licensing if they offered gender-affirming care to minors, a law that courts have blocked while litigation proceeds.

“This bill is not about politics, it’s about safeguarding the health and innocence of Montana youth,” one of SB164’s House supporters, Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, said Tuesday. But more than a quarter of members of his own party disagreed, suggesting a potential turning point for the Montana legislature, at least on trans issues.

Tuesday’s vote was the second time this year a large swath of Republicans crossed party lines to block an anti-trans bill. Last year, Montana’s first openly transgender lawmaker, Rep. Zooey Zephyr, said her Republican colleagues often privately bemoan the transphobic culture wars and apologize to her for their votes on anti-LGBTQ legislation. 

Even so, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed two anti-trans bills into law last month—a bathroom ban and a law prohibiting trans girls and women from playing on women’s sports teams from kindergarten through college. The bathroom ban has been temporarily blocked. A state law that prohibited trans women from participating in female collegiate sports was ruled unconstitutional in 2022.

The right to privacy is enshrined in the Montana constitution, and state courts have strongly affirmed its application to healthcare laws. Last December, the Montana Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s preliminary injunction on a law that would have made gender-affirming medical care providers vulnerable to licensing board disciplinary proceedings. And last summer, it ruled that a parental consent law for minors seeking abortion was unconstitutional. (In January, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that ruling an unconstitutional infringement on parental rights. The Supreme Court has not decided whether to hear the case.)

If it had passed, SB164 would have become the first law in the country defining gender-affirming care as a form of felony child endangerment. (Child endangerment and abuse fall under different statutes, but both evoke the same myth that gender-affirming care is dangerous for youth.)

Montana, however, wouldn’t have been the first state to direct child welfare workers to investigate families of trans children. In 2022, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to open child abuse investigations into parents who seek gender-affirming care for their children. That directive remains partially blocked after families of trans children and the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG sued. 

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Trump uses child abuse awareness proclamation to bash transgender people

*This is reported by Axios.

President Trump‘s decision to target transgender care in a proclamation declaring April National Child Abuse Prevention Month “betrays” the month’s purpose, LGBTQ advocates said.

Why it matters: Framing the trans youth experience as “abuse” further stigmatizes an already vulnerable community, as the Trump administration tries to erase trans people from American life through policies limiting access to health care, careers, sports, education and more.

Driving the news: Trump’s Thursday proclamation singled out transgender care, labeling it a form of child abuse without acknowledging the most common risk factors for neglected or abused children.

  • “It is deeply disingenuous for Trump to use National Child Abuse Prevention Month as a platform to attack and stigmatize the trans community,” Ash Lazarus Orr, a spokesperson for Advocates for Trans Equality, told Axios.

Reality check: Gender-affirming care is supported as both medically appropriate and potentially life saving for children and adults by major medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association.

  • Drugs like puberty blockers are temporary and reversible. They are given to trans youth and non-trans youth who experience early onset puberty.

What they’re saying: Trump’s proclamation “is vile and upsetting but importantly it is just a press release,” Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project said in a statement on Instagram.

  • “It does not change the law or direct any agency action. But it does continue to suggest that the government is moving towards efforts to explicitly criminalize trans life and support of trans people.”

“Using the language of ‘child protection’ to justify the oppression of trans youth betrays the very values this month is meant to uphold,” Orr said.

  • “Denying trans youth medical care won’t change who they are.”

“Supporting a child — regardless of their gender identity — is an act of love, period,” Jarred Keller, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, said.

  • “The idea that affirming a child’s gender identity constitutes something harmful is an insult to the parents who support their transgender children with compassion and understanding.”

Threat level: Trump wrote that “a stable family with loving parents” is a safeguard against child abuse, but most victims are abused by a parent, according to the National Children’s Alliance.

By the numbers: In 2022, a reported 434,000 perpetrators abused or neglected a child, per the alliance.

  • 76% of children were victimized by a parent or legal guardian in substantiated child abuse cases, meaning that child protective services agencies determined that abuse or neglect occurred.

Zoom out: Trump in January signed an executive order to defund youth gender-affirming care and a separate one threatening funding for K-12 schools that accommodate transgender children.

  • American hostility toward trans people has prompted U.S. allies to issue travel advisories for trans travelers, warning them that they must designate one “sex” on their travel forms and it has to reflect the gender they were assigned at birth.
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Ts Madison’s ‘Starter House’ opens its doors to trans women in Atlanta

*This is being reported by Out.com

Trans icon Ts Madison has now opened a groundbreaking new initiative — dubbed as a “Starter House” — for trans women in Atlanta, GA, coinciding with 16th annual Transgender Day of Visibility. The trans advocate has partnered with NAESM, a historic Black HIV/AIDS organization, to launch a groundbreaking housing initiative aimed at supporting Black trans women engaged in sex work.

Located in Ts Madison’s former residence, the facility offers Black trans individuals access to safe housing, gender-affirming healthcare, economic opportunities, and holistic support.

The grand opening stirred deep emotions for the RuPaul’s Drag Race judge. “This morning I was having withdrawals because this is a big thing. Like, this is my house. I’m like, I’m giving my house to the community. That means people are going to be transitioning in and out and in and out of this house. I built a legacy here, but I’m still attached to this house. These are girls that are disenfranchised. These are girls that are homeless. These are girls that are trying to find another way in their life.”

The Ts Madison Starter House is part of A New Way of Life’s SAFE Housing Network, a global coalition of over 30 organizations focused on providing reentry support for women who have been incarcerated. Founded in 1998, the SAFE Housing Network aims to reduce incarceration rates in the U.S. by offering safe housing, assisting individuals in healing from the trauma of their experiences, and empowering them to take a leadership role in the movement to end mass incarceration.

Dominique Morgan, the Executive Director of the project, emphasized the importance of community support. “I think so many of us feel the fear of what’s happening in this climate, and so many folks feel like, oh my goodness, are we going to make it. And what today really symbolizes for me is that we have answers happening all over the place, and that we have the power to decide how we show up for each other.”

This facility will serve as a vital stepping stone for women, providing safe, affirming housing that prioritizes dignity and stability. To learn more and/or make a donation to the project, visit the official page for the Ts Madison Starter house.

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Kentucky Re-Legalizes Conversion Therapy, Restricts Adult Access to Gender-Affirming Care

*This is being reported by THEM.

Kentucky’s legislature has overridden Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill that allows conversion therapy to resume in the state and that bans Medicaid funds from being used for gender-affirming care, including for adults. Beshear also allowed a bill banning incarcerated people from receiving or continuing to receive publicly funded gender-affirming care to pass into law without his signature.

On Wednesday, the Kentucky House and Senate, which are both controlled by Republicans, voted to override Beshear’s veto of House Bill 495, per the Lexington Herald-Leader. The bill reverses the governor’s September 2024 executive order, which banned so-called conversion therapy from being practiced on youth in the state. Though HB 495 was originally only meant to roll back the ban on the harmful, discredited practice, the bill was additionally amended to add a ban on the use of Medicaid funds for gender-affirming care for trans adults, per the Herald-Leader. HB 495 has an emergency clause, meaning that it takes effect immediately. According to the Kentucky Lantern, the House voted to override the veto 78-20, and the Senate voted 31-6.

However, Beshear did not veto Senate Bill 2, which bans gender-affirming care for incarcerated trans people. At a press conference in December, Beshear stated that “convicted felons do not have the right to have any and all medical surgeries paid for entirely by tax dollars, especially when it would exceed the type of coverage available to law-abiding citizens in the private sector,” according to The Hill. As the publication noted, though, the state has never provided a gender-affirming surgery for an incarcerated person. Even so, gender-affirming care, including surgery, is medically necessary. As the ACLU’s Chase Strangio told Them in September, “Courts have consistently held that blanket denials of medical care, including medical treatment related to gender dysphoria, are unconstitutional,” since the denial of that care could violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

According to the Kentucky Lantern, there are only 67 trans people incarcerated in Kentucky prisons, all of whom will be forced to stop gender-affirming hormone therapy if that care is paid for with public funds. At a February hearing, Louisville psychologist Jacks Gilles testified against the bill, stating that stopping that care “will result in negative outcomes, including increased anxiety, disturbances in social and familial relationships, depression, suicidality and death,” according to the Lantern. “Gender-affirming medical care is not experimental, it’s not elective, and it’s not cosmetic,” Gilles said.

Beshear has previously been hailed as an outspoken advocate for the trans community. In a November 2024 op-ed for the New York Times, the governor pleaded with his fellow Democrats to not scapegoat trans people for the party’s loss. Though the legislature overrode his veto, in 2023 Beshear did attempt to put a stop to a wide-sweeping anti trans bill that banned minors from receiving gender-affirming care, prohibited trans kids from using the bathrooms that align with their identities at school, and banned discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in elementary schools.

In a statement posted to Facebook, Chris Hartman, the executive director of statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Fairness Campaign, called the passage of the bills “a sad day in Kentucky.”

“Two anti-LGBTQ+ bills will become law with devastating consequences for our community,” he said, calling both bills “cruel” and that they “have no place in our Commonwealth.”

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GOP bill could ban hairdressers from giving gender-nonconforming haircuts to minors

*This is being reported by LGBTQNation.

A bill introduced by Republican lawmakers in Arkansas aims to intimidate anyone who supports or affirms young people’s social transition.

Earlier this month, Arkansas state Rep. Mary Bentley (R) introduced H.B. 1668, the “Vulnerable Youth Protection Act,” and Republican state Sen. Alan Clark introduced the Senate version. As the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and local advocacy group Intransitive note, the anti-trans bill does not actually criminalize anything. Arkansas law banning gender-affirming care for minors was already struck down by a federal judge in 2023.

Instead, H.B. 1668 “weaponizes civil enforcement by permitting lawsuits against any person who supports trans young people by providing or helping to receive gender-affirming care or by affirming young people in their transition,” according to the ACLU of Arkansas. Minors or their parents can sue for minimum damages of $10,000 and up to $10 million in punitive damages for certain forms of medical care. The bill also allows Arkansas parents to sue people or medical providers outside of the state who help Arkansas youth access gender-affirming care.

Sadly, in 2025, state laws aimed at preventing minors from receiving gender-affirming healthcare — which every major American medical association has long been endorsed as evidence-based, safe, and in some cases lifesaving for trans and gender-nonconforming youth — are nothing new. But Arkansas’s proposed law goes an alarming step further in targeting anyone who might support or affirm a young person’s social transition.

The bill defines social transitioning as “any act by which a minor adopts or espouses a gender identity that differs from the minor’s biological sex … including without limitation changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, and name.”

As the ACLU of Arkansas notes, if enacted, H.B. 1668 could lead to frivolous lawsuits against “hairdressers who cut a trans teen’s hair, teachers who use a student’s chosen name, and nonprofits that offer support.” Such lawsuits, the organization says, would be unlikely to hold up in court, as the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and free expression.

However, the law is clearly meant to chill support for trans and gender-nonconforming young people with the threat of costly lawsuits. Describing the bill as “state-mandated bullying,” the ACLU of Arkansas writes that “H.B. 1668 fosters a climate of fear, where doctors, teachers, and even parents risk financial ruin simply for supporting transgender youth. It is a blatant overreach of government power, attempting to control private decisions and to circumvent our constitutional rights, including free speech, religious exercise, due process, and equal protection.”

During a Tuesday, March 18, hearing before the Arkansas House Judiciary Committee, a representative from the state attorney general’s office expressed concern that, as written, H.B. 1668 could not be legally defended, citing the First Amendment’s free speech protections.

“Particularly as it comes to the conduct that other individuals are allowed to have towards minors that can be deemed to be aiding in their social transitioning — things like a haircut, even clothing, or even the use of pronouns,” he said, “That’s all speech. And so our concern there is that when you are criminalizing or, in this case, providing a civil cause of action for certain forms of speech, that has to pass a very, very high constitutional bar, and we have to be able to defend that in court. And we think of this bill as it currently is, we can’t do that.”

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Ohio appeals court tosses out ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors

*This is being reported by The Columbus Dispatch.

Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors is unconstitutional and should be tossed out, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The three-judge panel on the Tenth District Court of Appeals overturned a decision by a Franklin County judge that allowed the law to take effect last year. The GOP-controlled Legislature voted in early 2024 to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68, but advocates quickly sued on behalf of two transgender girls and their families.

“It is difficult to understand why our legislature believes adults are equipped to make decisions about gender-affirming medical care for themselves but not for their minor children,” Judge Carly Edelstein wrote in the decision.

House Bill 68 prevents doctors from prescribing hormones, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery before patients turn 18. It also bans transgender girls and women from playing on female school sports teams, although the lawsuit didn’t target that piece of it.

The law allows Ohioans younger than 18 who already receive hormones or puberty blockers to continue, as long as doctors determine stopping the prescription would cause harm. It does not ban talk therapy, but mental health providers must get permission from at least one parent or guardian to diagnose and treat gender dysphoria.

The American Civil Liberties Union argued the law violates the right of transgender Ohioans to choose their health care under the Ohio Constitution.

“The state’s ban is discriminatory, baseless and a danger to the well-being of the same Ohioan youth lawmakers claim to want to protect,” said Harper Seldin, an attorney for the ACLU. “It’s also part of a sweeping effort to drive trans people out of public life altogether by controlling our health care, our families and our lives.”

Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, who is running for governor in 2026, pledged to appeal the decision.

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Trump administration changes at the VA affecting care for LGBTQ veterans

*Reported by NPR’s Morning Edition.

Staff and patients at the Department of Veterans Affairs say impacts of Trump administration changes to the agency go beyond erasing diversity programs and affect care for LGBTQ patients.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to cut as many as 80,000 employees, which it says won’t affect healthcare or benefits. Still, VA staff and patients are concerned that a policy ending diversity programs will affect care for LGBTQ veterans. Here’s Steve Walsh with WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia.

STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: Mary Brinkmeyer put in her resignation after receiving emails from management in the wake of President Trump signing executive orders targeting DEI.

MARY BRINKMEYER: It was just a really upsetting and shocking change for me from feeling as if the program was supported to suddenly having people being told they have to take every Pride magnet out of their office. And it felt like that happened just overnight and without a lot of thought.

WALSH: Until recently, the psychologist was the LGBTQ+ veteran care coordinator for the Hampton VA. A few days after the inauguration, employees at her VA were told to take down any outward signs referencing LGBTQ veterans, including flyers printed by the VA.

BRINKMEYER: Less than 24 hours after everything had been taken out of the main hospital, I was speaking to a gay veteran who said, oh, I heard about how y’all took everything down. I guess that shows what they think of us.

WALSH: Rainbow-colored Pride lanyards, which say the VA serves all who serve, had been a strategy to make veterans feel safe. They were banned from the building, she says.

BRINKMEYER: A lot of LGBTQ veterans don’t feel safe coming to the VA because their experiences in the military were so unsafe.

WALSH: Brinkmeyer says she decided to resign when she said she was told to stop attending employee orientation. A large part of her job had been training other providers in ways to ask the right questions. A transformation is underway at the VA, but it’s unclear how large the change will be. VA Secretary Doug Collins announced the change to the VA’s flag policy.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DOUG COLLINS: For all of us who served in uniform, that American flag is on our uniform. It’s what unites us. So we’ve changed the policy. At the VA, you’re only going to see the American flag and the POW flag. That’s what’s going to be flying in front of our facilities.

WALSH: John Rogers with the Hampton VA says they are working to execute the executive order, and there will be no changes to services and benefits for veterans and VA beneficiaries until a formal order is issued. Banners and posters advertising the VA’s outreach for LGBTQ+ veterans came down very quickly at the Hampton VA in Virginia. Amanda Volk is a patient at the Hampton VA. She served under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 1995 and got out 18 months later after a sexual assault.

AMANDA VOLK: For those of us that lived through Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, we were there. We saw it. We marched. We fought. We thought we had our rights. And now it’s – you know, we’re back to the ’80s with people being scared.

WALSH: In New York state, one mental health practitioner says posters remain up at his VA, but he’s still seeing a chilling effect among veterans. NPR agreed to withhold his name as he fears retaliation.

UNIDENTIFIED HEALTH PRACTITIONER: I think, you know, veterans are kind of hesitant, and some veterans I know have decided they’re not willing to come in person. It’s more on the veteran side of things that there’s this uncertainty of kind of what care actually is going to look like.

WALSH: Adding to the tension, in late January, a transgender veteran killed themselves in the parking garage of the Syracuse VA Medical Center, wrapped in the transgender flag – an indication, he says, that this shift has a high potential to impact patient care at the VA.

For NPR News, I’m Steve Walsh.

MARTÍNEZ: If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

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Texas A&M System bans drag shows from its universities

*This was reported by The Texas Tribune.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Friday passed a resolution banning all drag performances from taking place on its 11 university campuses.

This means that Draggieland, a beloved annual event scheduled for March 27 at the Rudder Theatre on the College Station campus, will have to find a new venue. Students have also held drag shows at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi and East Texas A&M University.

The move potentially sets up another First Amendment fight between students and university administrators.

The resolution says the board recognizes the need for universities to foster a sense of community and belonging among students but adds that drag shows are “inconsistent with [the system’s] mission and core values, including the value of respect for others.”

The resolution also says drag shows are “likely to create or contribute to a hostile environment for women,” contrary to university and federal anti discrimination policies.

“These events often involve unwelcome and objectively offensive conduct based on sex for many members of the respective communities of the universities, particularly when they involve the mockery or objectification of women,” the resolution says.

The resolution says having on-campus drag shows may be seen as promoting gender ideology and that both President Donald J. Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott have said federal and state funds may not be used for that purpose. It directs the system’s chancellor and the president of each institution to implement the policy, including canceling any upcoming drag shows.

The vote was unanimous. Regent Mike Hernandez III was absent.

The Queer Empowerment Council, a student group that hosts Draggieland and other LGBTQ+ events at Texas A&M University, said in a statement Friday evening that it was “profoundly disheartened” by the decision.

“The power of drag as a medium of art is undeniable, serving as a platform for self-discovery, inclusivity, and celebration of diversity. QEC firmly believes that the Board of Regents’ decision undermines these values, which are vital to fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for all students,” the council said.

It is exploring whether it can hold Draggieland on the same or a different date at a different venue.

“We are committed to ensuring that our voices are heard, and that Draggieland will go on, no matter the obstacles we face,” the group said.

In 2023, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler canceled an on-campus drag show, similarly arguing such performances degrade women.

The students said his comments were off base and sued him for violating their First Amendment rights as well as a state law that prohibits universities from barring student organizations from using their facilities on the basis of the political, religious, philosophical, ideological or academic viewpoints the organizations express. The court has allowed Wendler’s cancellation to stand while it makes a decision.

“They are imposing a restraint on an entire category of protected speech under the First Amendment and in no public college campus should that ever occur per our Constitution,” said JT Morris, senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, of the regent’s decision Friday. Morris is representing the students in the West Texas A&M case.

Civil rights groups also condemned the resolution. Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQIA+ rights at the ACLU of Texas, said the West Texas A&M lawsuit plus one her organization spearheaded and ultimately blocked a statewide ban on drag shows “makes this kind of absurd.”

“To do this now, while that’s already happening, is a waste of time and resources and makes it seem like the Board of Regents is more focused on culture wars than educating their students,” they said.

Sofia Sepulveda, field director for Equality Texas, noted that not all drag is performed by men.

“Women performers also delight in a chance to poke fun at stereotypes that have held women back for generations,” she said.

She also criticized the gender disparities among the flagship’s faculty.

“If A&M is worried about creating a hostile environment for women, then why don’t they hire more women?” Sepulveda said. “Right now, only 40% of the faculty at Texas A&M are women, 60% are men. That’s a serious issue.”

Draggieland organizers have said the event is an important outlet for the LGBTQ+ community at a time when it has come under attack from conservative policymakers in Texas and across the nation.

Students raised funds to keep the show going when the university stopped sponsoring it in 2022. In the years since, they’ve seen LGBTQ+ representation and resources on campus diminish.

Last year, Texas A&M University cut an LGBTQ+ studies minor and stopped offering gender-affirming care at the Beutel Student Health Center. In a statement Friday afternoon, the university said it had begun coordinating with the division of student affairs to notify student organizations about the board’s decision.

Regents were also expected to discuss Friday who should be the system’s next leader after Chancellor John Sharp retires this year. Regents met in Houston earlier this week to interview candidates. They did not make a decision on a finalist Friday.

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Texas Freshman House Rep Files Bill to Ban Gender Transitioning for Adults

First year freshman Texas state house representative Brent Money (R-Greenville) filed House Bill 3399 on Wednesday which would ultimately ban all gender transitioning procedures in the state of Texas, regardless of age of the patient.

The section of the bill that would prohibit doctors from providing this care to adults is written in this section:

Sec. 161.702. PROHIBITED PROVISION OF GENDER TRANSITIONING
OR GENDER REASSIGNMENT PROCEDURES AND TREATMENTS [TO CERTAIN
CHILDREN]. For the purpose of transitioning a person’s [child’s]
biological sex as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and
endogenous profiles of the person [child] or affirming the person’s
[child’s] perception of the person’s [child’s] sex if that
perception is inconsistent with the person’s [child’s] biological
sex, a physician or health care provider may not knowingly:
(1) perform a surgery that sterilizes the person
[child], including:
(A) castration;
(B) vasectomy;
(C) hysterectomy;
(D) oophorectomy;
(E) metoidioplasty;
(F) orchiectomy;
(G) penectomy;
(H) phalloplasty; and
(I) vaginoplasty;
(2) perform a mastectomy;
(3) provide, prescribe, administer, or dispense any of
the following prescription drugs that induce transient or permanent
infertility:
(A) puberty suppression or blocking prescription
drugs to stop or delay normal puberty;
(B) supraphysiologic doses of testosterone to
females; or
(C) supraphysiologic doses of estrogen to males;
or
(4) remove any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body
part or tissue.

Did you think this was all about protecting the children? Of course not. They are coming for you, regardless of whether you are a grown adult or not.

The one glimmer of hope in this situation is that bills filed by freshman state reps in Texas typically do not making anywhere close to the floor for a vote. It would be a rare case if it did, and at this time there are also no co-authors to the bill. This meant he’s out on a limb on his own with this legislation. It may be a red meat attention getter for his constituents and the GOP at large.

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