‘LIKED’: UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson initially put a “like” on this tweet, Asked about it, he said it was a mistake and retracted it. UAMS operates a clinic for transgender people 18 and older.

The Arkansas legislature’s cruel fixation on oppressed minorities continues next week.

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A special order of business Monday in a Senate committee is SB354 by Sen. Missy Irvin to address a non-existent problem. She would prevent transgender girls from participating in girls’ athletics. No such circumstance exists at the moment (not a single girl has been ‘sidelined’) and, even if one did, the case law says this bill is unconstitutional and that such participation is not harmful to anyone.

It is reminiscent of the men-in-the-bathroom panic that stirred the legislature in 2017. On that occasion, Leslie Newell Peacock wrote an instructive article for the Times on the real transgender crisis — the suicidal feelings of the tiny number of people who find themselves at odds with their biological gender at birth. Peacock wrote then what’s worth repeating today in the transgender hysteria that grips Irvin and other legislators:

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Had legislators gotten their heads out of the stalls, they could have acted to help, rather than further marginalize, their fellow Arkansans. They could have changed state Medicaid rules that disallow reimbursement for hormone therapies. They could have appropriated funds to run the Department of Health’s suicide hotline. Or they could have talked to physicians who would have helped them understand that transgendered people are not freaks, no more likely to prey on people than, say, redheads or Razorback fans.

The cruelty is not only directed at the imagined threat of soccer players insufficiently female for the likes of Irvin.

An even more sweeping attack on transgender people is on the agenda in a House committee Monday, HB1570 by Rep. Robin Lundstrum and a host of others. It prohibits gender transition procedures, including hormone treatment, for people younger than 18. It prohibits any form of public support (none is allowed now except that some facilities generally supported by public money provide such services). It would ban public support for any institution providing these services, including a private organization leasing a public building. It eliminates a tax deduction for such medical expenses. It bars Medicaid reimbursement (already barred). Insurance coverage is prohibited (though this master’s thesis at UA says no insurance in Arkansas covers it now). It allows lawsuits against people who provide these services and gives enforcement power to the attorney general, who, as a sponsor of anti-transgender legislation, herself, would undoubtedly approve.

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Note that Peacock’s article in 2017 covered the gender clinic at UAMS. It does not include surgery and does not serve people younger than 18. I brushed up on this yesterday when inquiring about a “like” UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson had put on a tweet by Missy Irvin touting passage of similar anti-transgender legislation in Mississippi. He explained through a spokesman that he’d erroneously “liked” the wrong Tweet (he said he’d been aiming to like a tweet about two of his favorite bands, Swamp Dogg and Low Cut Connie) and retracted it.

UAMS, for now, may not be affected by this legislation. But that may not be the same situation for Arkansas Children’s Hospital, which also has a gender spectrum clinic, lauded by the Human Rights Campaign. Its services include hormone therapy and menstruation and puberty suppression. There are numerous other providers of  services for transgender in Arkansas, ranging from counseling to therapy. Several have public connections.

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I’m pissing into a cruel legislative wind here, but I rounded up a few things on the topic worth noting.

One was what U.S. Sen. Patty Murray had to say Saturday when Sen./Coach Tuberville, a shameful example of Arkansas education, tried to derail the COVID stimulus bill with an amendment to ban transgender women from women’s sports. I’ve supplied emphasis to a sentence for the Arkansas legislature applicable to more than its transgender phobia:

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Murray, responding to Tuberville’s proposed amendment, said it was “simply an attempt to discriminate against transgender students” and “a harmful attempt to undermine our work to help students and families.”

“All students, including transgender students, benefit from participating in sports, to challenge themselves, to improve fitness, to be part of a team,” Murray said.

“Allowing transgender students to participate in athletic activities consistent with their gender identity in no way disadvantages their fellow students,” Murray continued. “For the love of God, can’t we just have a little bit of heart and compassion in this world for someone who doesn’t look or live exactly like you?”

“Instead of focusing on discriminatory policies,” Murray added, “we should be examining the real issues with gender parity in sports when it comes to funding and resources and pay equity.”

USA Today wrote extensively last year on the nationwide Republican jihad against transgender people. Arkansas, at least so far, hasn’t emulated states attempting to criminalize transition services. Arkansas IS pushing legislation, defeated recently in a House committee, that allows a “moral” exemption for health care providers. Without explicitly saying so, this would allow health workers to not serve transgender people at all, except in mandated emergencies. This is a movement to define gender dysphoria out of existence as if it were a whim similar to a hairstyle.

Surgery is, by the way, generally not encouraged until after 18, but hormone treatment can, and often should, begin earlier. From USA Today’s account:

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… sponsors argue the bills will protect children from being forced to medically transition by doctors, despite how transgender minors undergo many consultations with therapists, family and doctors before getting any prescriptions. Doctors also assess whether youth want to continue treatment throughout the process and explain risks and side effects, according to the Transgender Care Navigation Program at the University of California, San Francisco.

A small percentage of young people change their minds about hormone therapy. This article in Vox explains why that need not be a major concern.

Governor Hutchinson stood in the way of the bathroom bill in 2017. He’s not shown such fortitude in 2021.  He DOES continue to urge passage of hate crimes legislation, likely to be defeated precisely because of the transgender- and gay-phobia of the Arkansas legislature.

It is inexplicable angst for such a small number of people (an estimated 1,450 aged 13 to 17 in Arkansas according to a comprehensive UCLA study) and people with immense burdens at that. A 2015 national survey drew 225 transgender respondents in Arkansas. They painted a harsh picture of life in Arkansas, now getting harsher thanks to legislators with far more important issues not spurring similar energy.

Arkansas: Unafraid to discriminate. And armed to stand our ground if you don’t like it.

 

 

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