Examining Trump’s assertion about ‘transgender operations on illegal aliens’ debate | debate

During the presidential debate Tuesday, former President Donald Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris on her help for taxpayer-funded medical take care of transgender people.

“Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” Trump stated. “This is a radical left liberal that would do this.”

The remark was the one point out of the LGBTQ+ group on the debate stage.

Trump's feedback seem to seek advice from a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire stuffed out by then-Sen. Harris throughout her first presidential bid.

The questionnaire requested: “As President, will you use your executive authority to ensure that transgender and nonbinary people who rely on the state for medical care — including those in prison and immigration detention — will have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care? If yes, how will you do so?”

She responded sure, including that “it is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition.”

She famous that because the California state legal professional common, she backed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation determination to offer gender transition surgical procedure to state inmates.

In 2015, whereas Harris was the legal professional common, California and the Transgender Law Center reached a historic settlement to maneuver a transgender girl inmate to a girls’s correctional facility and supply her with transgender medical care that had been deemed medically mandatory by a number of medical and psychological well being clinicians, based on the settlement agreement.

The case was hailed by LGBTQ activists, who stated it will affect incarcerated trans folks nationwide.

Harris’ response within the ACLU questionnaire continued, including that she supported insurance policies to permit federal inmates to acquire “medically necessary care for gender transition” whereas incarcerated.

“I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment,” she wrote.

The Harris marketing campaign communications director Michael Tyler informed Fox News that the 2019 questionnaire is just not what the vice chairman is proposing or a part of her platform. They didn't provide new particulars on the place she at the moment stands on the difficulty.

ABC News has reached out to the Harris marketing campaign for additional remark.

Harris and Trump insurance policies on gender-affirming care

The Harris-Walz marketing campaign has not formally launched any coverage proposals or guarantees regarding gender-affirming care to this point. However, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an govt order in May defending and supporting entry to gender-affirming well being take care of LGBTQ folks within the state.

In his order, Walz notes that quite a few medical organizations, together with the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that entry to gender-affirming care is important to the well being and wellness of gender various folks.

Studies by researchers at Boston Children Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and printed by the American Psychological Association have proven that gender-affirming care will be life-saving for transgender and nonbinary youngsters and adolescents, selling constructive psychological and bodily well being and well-being.

The order got here amid a wave of laws from conservative lawmakers that has led to no less than 26 states implementing insurance policies that prohibit gender-affirming take care of transgender youth.

Supporters of trans care bans argue that youngsters and their households ought to wait till they're older to make choices about their gender and well being.

The Biden-Harris administration has additionally signaled help for transgender Americans, reversing a Trump-era ban on transgender navy service and revising Title IX to incorporate protections for gender identification.

In one assertion to nonprofit news organization The 19th, the White House stated that gender-affirming surgical procedures ought to be restricted to adults — as is usually the case — however helps gender-affirming take care of minors.

Trump has said that he plans to ban taxpayer funding for sex-change surgical procedures — which would come with gender-affirming take care of detainees — and bar faculties from “promoting gender transition.”

He additionally said that he would reverse the Title IX revisions regarding gender identification.

LGBTQ points have been entrance and heart on each nationwide and state political arenas. More than 500 payments impacting the LGBTQ group have been thought of within the U.S. this yr, based on the ACLU.

LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD criticized the shortage of consideration on LGBTQ points on the debate stage.

“The debate included only one mention of LGBTQ Americans, a smear against transgender people that went unchallenged,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement. “As Americans begin returning ballots and line up for early voting, reporters must remember that the next President of the United States will have a profound impact on the LGBTQ community and all marginalized people. We urge reporters to ask leaders for specific ways they will ensure we are always welcome and safe.”