This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s longest running column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
Are you sick and tired of legal professionals like circuit judges understanding the law and acting without blatant ideological bias? Then I’ve got news that’s sure to delight you, you horrible little cretin, you!
You may recall that Donald Trump’s Justice Department has been on an unholy crusade against the very concept of safe, necessary, proven healthcare being provided to young transgender people. Starting in July of last year, the Justice Department has issued probing subpoenas left and right, demanding a shocking volume of protected patient data on trans kids and the medical professionals who treat them.
If you’re curious what data, exactly, the Justice Department wants, I can save you some time: They want all of it! Anything and everything to do with young trans patients, going back years before Donald Trump took office for a second time and placed the final nail in the coffin of the American Empire.
I, for one, welcome the oncoming American Century of Humiliation. We’ve had it too good for too long here in the States, and it’s high time we be knocked down a peg and somebody else be given a chance to rule the international political stage with an iron fist. Godspeed you, People’s Republic of China and Republic of India! The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Your time is now!
Anyway, the latest news about the Justice Department’s relentless intimidation campaign against healthcare providers is an update to a case involving a telehealthcare provider called QueerDoc. Straight from their website, QueerDoc describes their mission statement as follows:
“Expert transgender medicine for all ages online. Access gender affirming care from an entirely queer and trans team through telehealth. QueerDoc leads the nation in combining community wisdom with evidence-based medicine to advance the field of trans healthcare and provide individualized care to help you achieve you! Our team is experienced [in] supporting care with testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, bicalutamide, SERMs, puberty blockers, and more.”
Perhaps you don’t know this, but I am a strong supporter of easily accessible, supremely affordable (and preferably free) healthcare for all, in particular members of my community, who I believe should be able to access puberty blockers and hormone therapy via a transparent informed consent model.
I believe children on the verge of puberty, or indeed at any stage of puberty, should be able to acquire blockers to halt that process so they can make an informed decision about starting hormone therapy. Despite what some very loud, stupid people would have you believe, we know blockers are safe (they’ve been prescribed to cisgender kids for precocious puberty since the 1980s, and trans kids to pause puberty since at least the 1990s, without any reported adverse incidents), and we know they provide tremendous benefits to the young people who take them.
I also believe young people and adults who want to pursue hormone therapy without blockers should be allowed to do that just as easily and cheaply. More germane to the topic at hand, though, I strongly believe all Americans have a right to pursue safe, effective healthcare without being harassed by the federal government.
Like many providers, QueerDoc has been fighting a subpoena since last year. In October, Biden appointee Judge Jamal Whitehead ruled that the Justice Department could not do this, chiefly because of the naked animus evident in their purported investigations.
“This is not speculation about hidden motives — it is the Administration’s explicit agenda,” Judge Whitehead said. “The Government seeks the ‘intended effect’ of its Executive Orders and these subpoenas to ‘downsize or eliminate’ all gender-affirming care. No clearer evidence of improper purpose could exist than the Government’s own repeated declarations that it seeks to end the very practice it claims to be merely investigating.”
Perhaps indicative of the generational divide in giving a shit about the targeted harassment of minority Americans, a George W. Bush-appointed judge decided that Judge Whitehead ruled in error, and what’s more, even if the administration’s stated goal was to outlaw trans healthcare… that would be totally fine!
“Although the subpoena here was validly based on an investigation of health care law violations, the goal of ending ‘gender-affirming care’ is not in and of itself an ‘improper’ policy objective,” wrote Judge Carlos Bea in his ruling last Friday. “It is not so irrational or arbitrary as to be ultra vires. The Administration is entitled to adopt a position on either side of this ‘ongoing debate among medical experts.”
Ultra vires is a Latin phrase that means “beyond the powers.” Within the scope of the legal profession, where Latin is bandied about to let everybody know what an insufferable dickhead you are, ultra vires means an action taken by a government body that plainly exceeds the scope of its legal authority. Thus, Judge Bea is arguing in essence that the federal government is well within their rights to openly discriminate against a particular class of American by seeking to prohibit a form of healthcare that has consensus approval from medical professionals worldwide.
Cool.
So, what does this all mean? Well, the case is far from settled. The case will now go back to district court, where it will once again be argued. This is not so much an explicit win for the Justice Department as it is a frustration for QueerDoc, who released the following statement in the wake of Judge Bea’s ridiculous ruling:
“Nothing has changed: we are still able to provide medically-necessary, evidence-informed, and consent-driven care to youth and adults. QueerDoc is still caring for our current patients and accepting new patients. Transgender medicine remains legal in the United States and legal and protected in Washington State, where we are headquartered. We will continue to fight to protect transgender medicine and to protect patient privacy, which affects all people seeking healthcare.”
ACLU of Washington Staff Attorney Adrien Leavitt said, “Today’s decision sends this case back to the district court, and we’re ready to continue defending one of the most fundamental principles of healthcare: every patient’s right to confidential medical care.”
Crystal Beal, MD, CEO and founder of QueerDoc, said, “This case began with an attempt to use federal investigative powers to intimidate healthcare professionals and patients in an effort to undermine access to gender-affirming medical care. Although it arose from care provided to transgender patients, the principles at stake reach far beyond transgender healthcare. Every patient deserves to know they can seek medical care without fear that their most personal health information will become a tool of political investigation. QueerDoc remains committed to its mission of providing expert, evidence-informed medical care to transgender and gender diverse patients. We’ll continue caring for our patients while defending the privacy, trust, and ethical principles that make healthcare possible.”
Like with most of the court cases that have arisen because of these asinine Justice Department subpoenas, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens once QueerDoc has had its many, many, many… many days in court.
