The American Civil Liberties Union this week is warning that active-duty military personnel with transgender youth enrolled in TRICARE could be denied access to gender-affirming medical care if a proposal in the National Defense Authorization Act is allowed to become law.
The ACLU is opposing final passage of the defense bill over the inclusion of this health care ban, a press release issued Monday explained. Section 708 of the NDAA would prohibit insurance coverage for “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria” such as hormone therapy and puberty-suppressant medications, which Speaker Mike Johnson says would “permanently ban transgender medical treatment for minors.” The same treatments would be covered by TRICARE for any medical purpose other than treating gender dysphoria, the clinical diagnosis for the psychological distress experienced by transgender people related to their gender identity.
Mike Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU, called the move to ban such treatments “a dangerous affront to the dignity and well-being of young people whose parents have dedicated their lives to this country’s armed forces. “Medical care should stay between families and their doctors, but this provision would baselessly and recklessly inject politics into the health care military families receive,” Zamore said. “Nobody should have to choose between serving the country and ensuring their child has the health care they need to live and thrive.
Members of Congress must vote against the defense bill because of the inclusion of this deeply harmful, unconstitutional provision.” If passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden, this health care ban would be the first new anti-LGBTQ provision enacted by Congress since the passage of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” in the 1990s, the ACLU press release noted.