Hey friends! It’s the start of August so I wanted to share some positive LGBTQIA+ news from around the country! Here in Oregon, House Bill 2002 has officially gone into effect after being signed by Gov. Tina Kotek. This bill puts protections in place for reproductive and gender affirming care. Specifically, within the state of Oregon, Medicaid and private insurance companies are now required to cover facial feminization surgery and laser hair removal for trans individuals! This is a huge win as FFS and laser hair removal are often massive financial burdens for trans people, but are also often highly desired in order to live happily. I can’t express how happy I am that Oregon’s legislative branch overcame the state Republican outcry and passed the bill!
Even though there are a rash of anti-trans legislation being proposed around the country we are still winning legal fights against them. In Arkansas, U.S. District Judge Jay Moody recently struck down a harsh ban on gender affirming care for minors. Judge Moody ruled the ban was unconstitutional, and while it only affects Arkansas the ruling is likely to be used to challenge other anti-trans legislation in different states. Critically, Judge Moody identified the core issues with the legislation being a lack of grounding in science as well as based on unqualified testimony. Further, he reasserted that medical care agencies around the country have endorsed gender affirming care and denounced the bans.
It’s wonderful to see people in power taking action to prevent harmful legislation being passed and hopefully it can be used as precedent to prevent any future attempts to strip rights from groups. It’s important to keep up to date with the political movements across the country and I hope to keep posting about relevant queer issues, so keep an eye out here!
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