Trump Administration bans foreign aid from funding trans healthcare
The new sweeping rules expand the existing ban on foreign aid to abortion providers to include providers of trans healthcare and anything else that it deems to be “gender ideology”.
In effect, trans people of all kinds will have been written out of any funding with origins in the US government.
By Jane Migliara Brigham
Yesterday, Jan. 27, The State Department released new rules for US foreign aid which prevent any US government funds from going to organizations that promote “gender ideology”. In practice, this means the complete cutting off of funds for trans medicine and the promotion of social transition.
This is an expansion of the longstanding ‘Mexico City Policy’, which prevents any US foreign aid from going to abortion providers. This policy was implemented by Reagan in 1984, has been repealed by every Democrat administration, and re-implemented by every Republican administration. It serves as a gag rule, barring any organization receiving money from the US from acting in a way that the US government at the time does not like.
Us foreign aid covers approximately $50 billion in funding annually, most of which goes to health subsidies in developing countries.
The new rules define the term gender ideology very broadly, covering the following:
(I) The provision or promotion of sex-rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition;
(II) Committing resources, financial or other to increase the availability, or use of sex-rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition;
(III) Operating a service-delivery site that provides counseling, including advice and information, regarding the benefits and/or availability of sex-rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition (unless, in the case of a United States nongovernmental organization, the physical and financial separation requirements under this paragraph (a) with respect to foreign assistance are satisfied);
(IV) Providing advice that sex-rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition is an available option for treatment of gender dysphoria, or referring for, or encouraging individuals to consider, such activities;
(V) Lobbying, pressuring, or encouraging a foreign government to provide special legal status or protections based on gender identity, to legalize or make available sex- rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition, or otherwise to promote gender ideology, or lobbying, pressuring, or encouraging such a government to continue the legality of any such activities or otherwise to change policies to reflect gender ideology;
(VI) Conducting a public-information campaign in foreign countries regarding acceptance of gender ideology, or the benefits and/or availability of sex-rejecting procedures or sex-rejecting social transition;
(VII) Using or teaching sex education materials (including books, curricula, media, etc.) that include gender ideology, such as the idea that it is possible to change one’s sex, to be born in the wrong body, or instructing on the use of pronouns that do not correspond to an individual’s sex; and
(VIII) Conducting drag queen workshops, performances, or documentaries.
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The definition is tailored to prevent the funding of anything that contributes to trans life, whether in the form of transsexual medicine, social transition, accurate knowledge about trans people and transition, displays of gender and/or sex nonconformity, or any efforts to change the above rules.
As supporting evidence for this decision, the memo cites Skrmetti and the HHS trans healthcare report as reasons why trans healthcare is not necessary. As for the rules barring funds to social transition and the rest, it claims that these are needed to prevent the spread of “gender ideology”.
These rules, which are enacted towards the end of next month, will force foreign NGOs (non-government organizations) to choose between providing care and dignity to the trans people that come into their care, and choose the funding that provides for every other type of service they provide. For organizations that need US foreign aid to operate, it is probable that nearly all will choose to go along with the new rules.
In effect, trans people of all kinds have been written out of any funding with origins in the US government.
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