Republicans in Congress have hijacked a bill authorizing national defense spending for the coming year by forcing a ban on any medical treatment for “gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization” for those under 18 under the military’s health insurance plan, TriCare. The provision could prevent military members from getting safe, effective transitional care for their transgender children.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is an annual act published by Congress that regulates how the military budget is spent; it also regulates additional military facets beyond the budget. The GOP added a provision in this year’s NDAA that regulated any gender-affirming care for minors. However, in a bipartisan compromise meeting, the aforementioned provision against gender-affirming care was revealed instead.
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This version awaits a vote from the House and Senate, and will go to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he may veto or pass it. If he passes it, this would be the first federal statute restricting the LGBTQ+ community since the infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the 1990’s which heavily restricted LGBTQ+ people’s membership in the military.
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It is unclear exactly what gender-affirming care procedures will be targeted by the NDAA. While puberty blockers do not affect fertility, hormone replacement therapy may limit it to some degree while individuals are on it, although this is by no means universal, and there are fertility preservation processes — like freezing eggs or sperm — to counteract it.
Additionally, not all gender-affirming surgeries affect fertility, such as mastectomies, or top surgeries, in transmasculine individuals. However, such procedures are rarely conducted on children to begin with.
This provision may make the bill difficult to pass during the current lame-duck session. Over 160 House Democrats said in September that a final agreement should not target LGBTQ+ people, and President Biden has previously promised to veto legislation that would negatively affect the LGBTQ+ population.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a statement, “This [NDAA] legislation includes House-passed provisions to restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military by permanently banning transgender medical treatment for minors and countering antisemitism. This legislation also reinforces our commitment to America’s brave men and women in uniform, and their families, by making landmark investments in their quality of life.”
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) released a statement urging Johnson to reconsider the bill.
“Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong,” Smith wrote. “This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership. In doing so, he has upended what had been a bipartisan process,” he said.
“I urge the Speaker to abandon this current effort and let the House bring forward a bill — reflective of the traditional bipartisan process — that supports our troops and their families, invests in innovation and modernization, and doesn’t attack the transgender community,” Smith continued.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement, “Instead of focusing on the needs of the American people and our national security, anti-equality House Republican leaders are hijacking a defense bill to play politics with the healthcare of children of servicemembers. This is not leadership, it’s bullying, and it is a direct attack on military families.”
“This discriminatory provision is a slap in the face to servicemembers and their families, who sacrifice every day for our country. We ask our servicemembers to defend our country, and in return, we should defend their rights,” Robinson continued. “This cruel and hateful bill suddenly strips away access to medical care for families that members of our armed forces are counting on, and it could force servicemembers to choose between staying in the military or providing healthcare for their children. Politicians have no place inserting themselves into decisions that should be between families and their doctors. We call on members of Congress to do what’s right and vote against this damaging legislation.”
GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement, “Our national security is being hijacked by the extremist fringe few who want to score political points at the expense of military families. Service members put their lives on the line every single day to protect our freedom and our families – the very least elected officials can do is ensure that the service members’ families are protected too and that they have the freedom to make health care decisions best for their families.”
“This health care is mainstream care supported by every major medical association,” Ellis added. “Congress must reject this nonsensical provision and pass a clean defense bill that prioritizes national security and puts our military first.”
Republicans introduced numerous anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in the 2024 NDAA, but most of them got stripped out of the final version in order to win the Democrat support it needed to become law. The single anti-LGBTQ+ provision remaining in the bill prevented Pride flags from being flown over U.S. embassies in foreign countries, something that embassies can creatively work around.
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