U.S. SENATE PASSES NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT WITH DISCRIMINATORY PROVISION TARGETING MILITARY FAMILIES WITH TRANSGENDER DEPENDANTS

Final version of defense bill includes harmful language impacting an estimated 7,000 families’ access to lifesaving health care

(New York, NY – December 18, 2024) – GLAAD, the world’s leading LGBTQ media advocacy organization, is responding to the U.S. Senate’s vote in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a federal bill that contains a dangerous and discriminatory provision targeting the dependents of military service members and retirees and their essential health care. The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk for his signature or veto.

GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her) issued the following statement:

“Congress has now passed the first anti-LGBTQ federal statute in years, one that will directly harm thousands of service members and their families, and impact the security of every American family. The anti-transgender, anti-family provision in the National Defense Authorization Act will baselessly distract service members from their missions and duty to worry about their own families, a situation the U.S. government should never impose on the troops who put their lives on the line. This provision does nothing to prioritize national security or military readiness. America’s military heroes, including their families, should always be assured that their safety and freedoms are respected and protected.”

The provision will effectively ban nearly all forms of gender-affirming care through TRICARE, health care that is supported by every major medical association as safe, studied, and lifesaving (statements here). TRICARE is the uniformed services healthcare program for active duty service members, active duty family members, National Guard and Reserve members and their family members, retirees and retiree family members, survivors, and certain former spouses worldwide.

The bill passed in the U.S. House last week. On Monday night, Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and 20 other U.S. Senators introduced an amendment to remove the dangerous language. Sen. Baldwin, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) were among several Democrats to oppose the bill in its final vote today.

“We’re talking about parents who are serving our country in uniform, having the right to consult their family’s doctor and get the health care they want and need for their transgender children, that’s it,” Baldwin said on the Senate floor according to the Hill. She later continued, “Some folks poisoned this bill and turned their backs on those in service and the people that we represent.”

Sen. Baldwin noted that the provision will cause harm to approximately 6,000-7,000 families raising transgender youth. Many of those families have spoken out only on the condition of anonymity out of fear for their and their families’ safety.

“It is very hard for me to reconcile the idea that the country trusted me to fight in combat, to be shot at, to lead young sailors into combat, but they won’t trust me to make a medical decision for my child, which is the most important decision of my life,” said one retired Navy captain who is raising a transgender teenage son to the Washington Post. The Navy captain spent 29 years in the service and was a commanding officer of an aviation squadron.

“My spouse is active duty military,” said B., the spouse of an active duty airman and the parent of a trans child. “If these lawmakers saw him in the hallway in Congress, they would shake his hand and thank him for his service. They trust him with sensitive information, and they trust him with the security of the nation, but somehow they can’t trust him with making informed medical decisions for his own child?”

Another family impacted is Jane Doe and her 11-year-old daughter, Susan, who are also plaintiffs in a case challenging Florida’s ban on transgender health care led by GLAD Law. The Does are a military family who moved to Florida when John Doe was stationed there as a Senior Officer in the U.S. Navy. “The military doctors we work with understand the importance of providing that evidence-based, individualized care. We’re proud to serve our country, but we are being treated differently than other military families because of a decision by politicians in the state where we are stationed,” said Jane Doe.

The language inserted into the NDAA will be the first time in American history that a ban on health care for transgender Americans would become part of federal statute. It will be the first broadly anti-LGBTQ federal statute since policies such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prohibited open service by gay, lesbian, and bisexual members of the military and was repealed more than ten years ago; and the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act,” banning marriages for same-sex couples from being recognized by the federal government. DOMA was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. It was replaced with the Respect for Marriage Act, codified into law by Congress in 2022 and ensuring.full federal respect for same-sex and interracial marriages, including in hospitals across state lines, in tax and estate considerations, and in regards to all the federal protections of marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti earlier this month, a case challenging Tennessee’s law banning health care such as hormone therapy and puberty-pausing medications for transgender youth under 18, while the same treatments remain available to cisgender (non-transgender) youth.