The Trump administration is trying to legislate trans people out of existence | Judith Levine

On Thursday, when Robert F Kennedy Jr announced a move to block medical treatment for transgender young people, he used the term “gender rejection procedures” instead of “gender affirming care”.

And where transgender advocates and health care providers view puberty blockers, hormones and (in rare cases) surgical procedures as suicide prevention measures, the health secretary claimed that these “procedures” will have the opposite effect: “robbing children of their future.”

Under his proposals, hospitals that provide transgender care to minors would lose federal funding, including Medicaid.

In his language as in his policies, Kennedy denies everything, and everyone, trans.

Not content with harming transgender youth by denying them medical care, the Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on non-medical products like stretchy clothing and silicone prosthetics.

By attempting to regulate the trade in gender-affirming clothing and prosthetics, it is attempting to regulate transgender people.

On Wednesday, the FDA sent warning letters to a dozen suppliers of binders, underwear for tucking in carnal genitalia or for packaging artificial genitalia, as well as fake breasts and penises. The letters accuse the companies, whose names – ShapeShifter Apparel, GenderBender LLC, TomboyX – indicate the nature of their merchandise, of failing to register these products as “medical devices.” “Failure to adequately address this issue could result in FDA taking regulatory action without further notice,” the letters warn. “Such actions include, but are not limited to, seizure and injunction.”

The FDA has a lot of nerve. After all, its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, is run by a man who has promoted bogus “cures” for autism, like chelation, a treatment for heavy metal poisoning that killed a child this year. To lead “research” on autism and vaccines, Kennedy appointed charlatan David Geier, who, with his father, published studies supporting the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. To run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he appointed Mehmet Oz, who promoted quack treatments like green coffee bean extract and raspberry ketones for weight loss.

This heightened federal regulation adds even more suffering to transgender people, a crusade launched by Trump on his first day in office with the executive order “Defending Women from Ideological Gender Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order requires the federal government to recognize only two unchangeable genders – male and female – and to issue identity documents such as passports in accordance with this order. Congress is collaborating: A bill passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives would make providing care to transgender people a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Just as the Homeland Security Agency does with immigrants, HHS attempts to eliminate its own designated undesirables. But more than pushing people into hiding or sending them to undisclosed detention locations, the Trump administration believes it can legislate and regulate transgender and non-binary people. out of existence.

The president’s definition of acceptable humanity is limited. If he had his way, it seems, all women would be white and blonde.

But like women seeking to end their pregnancies in states and countries where abortion is illegal, transgender people will continue to rely on hormones and surgery – only they will be forced to do so through the black market and unlicensed providers, risking illness, disability, and death. Transmasculine people who do not undergo high-level surgery will bind their breasts; transfeminine people will go about their business. If they want comfort and style, they will pay more.

Criminalization does not stop people from doing everything they can to exercise the most fundamental human right: bodily autonomy. It just makes it more perilous.

Transgender and non-binary people have always existed and will continue to exist. They may be driven underground, but they will not disappear. The Trump administration knows it can’t weed out people whose gender doesn’t match their birth certificate. Instead, he will use whatever means he deems necessary to do what he does best: make them suffer.

• Judith Levine is a Brooklyn-based journalist, essayist, and author of five books. Its sub-pile is today in fascism