HRC Article:
WASHINGTON — Last night, President Biden signed the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law, which includes a provision inserted by Speaker Mike Johnson blocking healthcare for the transgender children of military servicemembers. This provision, the first anti-LGBTQ+ federal law enacted since the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, will rip medically necessary care from the transgender children of thousands of military families – families who make incredible sacrifices in defense of the country each and every day. The last anti-LGBTQ+ federal law that explicitly targeted military servicemembers was Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which went into effect in 1994.
Biden’s press release:
No service member should have to decide between their family’s health care access and their call to serve our Nation.
There need to be hard red lines. Human rights are one of these. This bill is literally, without any exaggeration, going to result in several thousand dead children. But the very survival of trans people is “political,” so it’s OK to sacrifice our lives for the sake of political expediency.
A few thousand dead kids is nothing, because deep down, people don’t see trans people as human beings.
I sincerely doubt it. The impact is limited to trans children of active service members who do not have a second parent with health insurance. Furthermore, trans healthcare for kids generally means puberty blockers, not surgeries or other expensive interventions. As far as I can gather, that’s about $5k-$12k per year if insurance pays, and likely lower with self pay discounts. That’s easily doable with a GoFundMe.
None of that is to say it’s OK. I’m just addressing the assertion of thousands of deaths.
Nobody should be thrown under the bus, but political reality in a split government says that someone will be. This gave Republicans the hate fix they so desperately wanted with probably less impact than with any other group. I still agree it sucks, but without knowing what the alternatives were, it’s not rational to assume Democrats just didn’t care to do better.
There are about 2 million minors on Tricare. Around 1% of the population is trans, then that’s 20,000 kids. The suicide attempt rate among trans kids untreated is about 40%. If only a quarter of those succeed, that’s 2,000 dead kids among Tricare’s current enrollees.
Now your despicable suggestion that people rely on GoFundMe for their life-saving healthcare? Or your hope that most families on Tricare have good insurance through their other partner? When military famously move so much that the other partner mantaining a good job is difficult? Those have obvious problems with them. The GoFundMe is a particularly demonic suggestion. Suffice it so say that no, thousands of families of trans kids are not going to find donors for thousands a year on fucking GoFundMe. This is healthcare, and that is what health insurance is for.
So yes, thousands of dead children is not in any way an exaggeration. Congress just willingly voted to murder several thousand children. And people like you are perfectly happy with it, as you do not consider trans people to be human beings.
What group did Republicans object to throwing under the bus?
Oh yeah, that only ever works one way, and it only ever works with people that Democrats consider expendable.
What? Who said they did? Republicans need to throw someone under the bus. That’s fascist strategy 101. They just don’t care who it is.
Let’s put you in charge of the party then. Who do you choose to sacrifice instead? The Republicans are going to insist on some red meat. If the bill gets pushed off until January 20, it’s just going to result in far worse for more people. One small charity could completely mitigate this issue for everyone, so why aren’t you working on that?
This is just the beginning of the shit this country will be dealing with for at least the next couple of years. If the Democrats don’t absolutely crush it in 2026, it will be a lot longer than that. You want to play these fucking games and pretend that Democrats are the enemy, then the blood can be on your hands.
I say this fully aware that the Democrats are on the wrong side of lots of issues that I care about, but there is no issue where they are worse than the Republicans. We can help by fixing the culture. Politicians are not good at doing the work of activists. (And activists generally make lousy politicians.)
And Democrats play along. That’s complicity 101.
Your question is based on the incorrect assumption that fascists are happy when they have achieved the sacrifice of one group. Who do you choose to sacrifice next? Because there will be a next. The trans people you consider expendable? When Republicans move on to the next entry on their “then they came for” list, there is one fewer entry between you and being the group Democrats are willing to jettison to save the dwindling whole.
I know why you aren’t. In my case, this happened yesterday. But hey, anyone who describes a problem has to singlehandedly solve it as it happens, or nothing they say is valid.
Yup. Democrats shoveling vulnerable populations into the maw in an effort they know to be in vain to placate implacable fascists.
Democrats are culpable for their complicity. You just want no accountability as your party turns quisling.
They’re on the wrong side of a lot of issues you don’t consider important too.
Pro war Democrats are worse on the issue of foreign policy than the 1 or 2 anti war Republicans.
They’re worse only on foreign policy, but they are worse.
1 or 2 Republicans? That’s such a creative way to do logic that I’m impressed!
Yeah, I totally concede. Straight up. In fact, I’ll bet that the average Democrat is worse than 1 or 2 Republicans on every issue! You fucking got me, LOL.