Last week, a Reagan appointed judge pushed back against Trump administration restrictions on HIV care providers. These restrictions, originating on day one of the Trump presidency with Executive Order 14168 and reinforced in March with new HHS funding rules, block federal funding for HIV care to providers who also provide gender affirming care or even acknowledge a trans person’s identity.
Speaking with HHS attorney Peter Goldstone in a court hearing for American Academy of HIV Medicine v. Health Resources and Services Administration, District Judge William Young of Massachusetts said that the order “expresses the view that transgender citizens don’t exist.” Young also stated that the order “seems to interfere with matters that are the most private… their personhood.”
When asked by Young to explain how the rules weren’t discriminatory, Goldstone replied, “I can’t.”
Two prominent Democratic governors spoke out against the party abandoning trans people. “I’ve never wavered on these issues, and politically, I’ve been successful,” Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said in an interview with The Advocate, going on to say that allies aren’t “willing to hurt a community to score political points.”
Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, was similarly unwavering in his support for the transgender community, and his own record, in an interview with CNN over the weekend. Responding to a recent spate of ads attacking Democrats by linking them to trans women in sports he said, “That is not the Party that we are. We start as a Party of compassion and empathy. And I tell you what, if we want to ruin sports, put government in charge of them.”
Both governors have a long history of supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Whitmer has repeatedly signed laws protecting LGBTQ+ people into law, including anti-discrimination laws and a ban on the “trans panic” defense. Beshear has repeatedly vetoed anti-trans legislation from Kentucky’s Republican dominated legislature, including bans on trans people in sports.
WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve has once again voiced support for trans people. Following a victory against the Indiana Fever, the Minnesota Lynx coach said “The transgender community is one that deserves our support, and what is happening in the name of some issues of transgender in sports is really an attack on all of the transgender community. They don’t want transgender people to exist.”
Throughout this season, Reeve has been outspoken in her support of the trans community. In August, she openly wore a shirt with the words, “Trans Kids Belong” during another game with the Indiana Fever, the team of anti-trans WNBA player, Sophie Cunningham.
