The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a 281 – 140 vote. The annual military budget contains a provision banning gender-affirming care for military members with trans children; nonetheless, 81 Democratic representatives voted in favor of the NDAA. Trans activists and military members with trans children criticized legislators who voted for it.
Republicans hijacked the $895.2 billion military bill by inserting a provision banning 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 will prevent military members from getting safe, effective transitional care for their transgender children.
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House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that Democratic congressional leadership didn’t tell legislators how to vote on the bill, adding, there’s a lot of “positive” and “bipartisan” provisions in the NDAA but also some “troubling” ones, CBS News reported.
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The Senate will now vote on the bill. If the Senate’s version remains identical to the House’s and passes in the upper congressional chamber, it will go to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he may veto or sign it into law. In the past, Biden has promised to veto legislation that harms the LGBTQ+ community.
If Biden signs the law, it 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 from serving in the military.
It’s unclear exactly what specific procedures the NDAA will ban. Puberty blockers don’t affect fertility, hormone replacement therapy can, and not all gender-affirming surgeries (like mastectomies) affect fertility. Such surgeries are rarely conducted on children.
Branden Marty, a Navy veteran with a transgender daughter told The Hill, “With policies like this, and we’ve seen them in states and at the federal level, legislators and politicians and leaders within our system of government are not listening to experts.” All major medical associations in the U.S. consider gender-affirming care to be safe and essential to trans children’s well-being.
Transgender activists criticized the bill’s passage.
“When a service member is forced to choose between continuing their military service or protecting the wellbeing of their child, it also undermines military readiness and endangers national security,” Advocates for Trans Equality’s (A4TE) Director of Federal Policy, Olivia Hunt, said in a statement. “Military families have enough to worry about—they should never have to fear that they can’t get necessary healthcare for their children.”
“Politicians who prioritize discriminatory agendas over the wellbeing of those who serve do a disservice to the very patriots they claim to honor,” Hunt added. “Healthcare decisions made between military families and their doctors should be respected, not politicized.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) supported the bill, saying 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.”
An anonymous military member with a trans daughter who receives treatments under Tricare told The Hill that they don’t understand how Johnson could think that this bill supports military readiness.
“In my mind, that doesn’t make sense at all. Taking away something that families are relying on distracts us from the mission and the task at hand in order to be and remain as lethal as we are,” the military member said. “I have a strong desire and propensity to continue to serve, but this will definitely weigh on my and my family’s decision to continue serving — and that’s difficult, but my family’s got to come first.”
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson responded to the vote, saying, “Military servicemembers and their families wake up every day and sacrifice more than most of us will ever understand. Those families protect our right to live freely and with dignity — they deserve that same right, and the freedom to access the care their children need.
She urged the Senate to reject “any bill that includes these dangerous anti-trans, anti-military family provisions,” adding, “Everyone deserves dignity, respect, and the right to healthcare.”
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