Facing another hearing on three more bills targeting Wisconsin’s transgender community, the decision by two Wisconsin hospitals to stop providing gender-affirming care for youth under threat from the federal government, new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) targeting health care for transgender youth, and the cases heard today by the Supreme Court of the United States, Fair Wisconsin’s executive director Abigail Swetz released the following statement:
“Anti-equality politicians in our state legislature have yet again called a hearing on more dangerous bills targeting our trans family, friends, and neighbors here in Wisconsin. Instead of doing their jobs as elected government officials and working to actually improve the lives of all Wisconsinites, these legislators have instead called damaging hearings on bills about names and pronouns in schools, gender markers on birth certificates, student athletes, and two bills aimed at eliminating access to health care that is essential and life-saving for so many youth.
Committee members in both chambers have heard Wisconsinites testify for hours as to the dangers of these bills were they to become law, all while our own federal government ramps up its all-out assault on trans people and their ability to live public lives by proposing rules out of CMS to hold federal funding hostage as a mechanism to eliminate access to gender-affirming care and our state’s own hospital systems give into threats of investigation and choose to pause care for trans youth. And today, SCOTUS is hearing oral arguments on cases that would strip trans athletes of the ability to play sports on a team where they belong.
Leaders elected to public office in this state and country are charged with ‘promoting the general welfare,’ and I fail to see how prioritizing attacks on a small and vulnerable population over addressing the actual challenges facing Wisconsinites and Americans does that.
Which begs the question – why? I fervently hope someone asks that question to our elected leaders who are attacking our trans community, because I fundamentally do not understand.
Americans are dealing with skyrocketing health care costs, an underfunded public school system, overpolicing, and a broken and weaponized immigration system, among other challenges. And yet, anti-equality politicians are hoping that, by attacking trans people, we won’t notice that our household budgets keep getting tighter, our students are struggling, and our communities are being threatened by our own federal government. Well, guess what? We noticed. And we will not stand for it.
Fair Wisconsin and a coalition of leaders from across Wisconsin will continue to show up and defend our communities from these attacks. We will continue to deliver hundreds of pages and hours of testimony, continue to mobilize Wisconsinites to submit public comment on the CMS proposed rules, and continue to fight.
To our incredible trans community here in Wisconsin, Fair Wisconsin has a message: we love you. You make this state and country a better place. We are fighting alongside you for your ability to thrive. And we will win.
And we have a message for the politicians behind these attacks on our community: Stop it. We’ll see you at the ballot box.”
For past press releases from Fair Wisconsin, including more recent testimony on the bills mentioned above, please visit our press page: https://fairwisconsin.com/news-press/. For information on the upcoming hearing, please visit Fair Wisconsin’s social media: https://www.instagram.com/fair_wisconsin.
