California lawmakers consider $26M to fund transgender care to make up for Trump cuts

Advocacy groups are demanding California lawmakers cough up $26 million in funds for access to “gender-affirming care” despite concerns about a multi-billion dollar state budget deficit.

In a packed committee hearing Monday, statehouse Democrats explored further ways to fight off what they described as “a significant threat” to care access for transgender Californians from the Trump administration.

“Since the very beginning the Trump administration has meticulously, inhumanely attacked the LGBTQ communities, specifically the trans community,” said Sen. Caroline Menjivar. “We believe everyone deserves the right to be treated equally and fairly.”

Trump has been targeting federal funding of services such as puberty blockers or surgery designed to help a person become a specific gender.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a declaration in December that such treatments are unsafe, which California sued over.

Last year, the state authorized $15 million to defray costs of providing coverage affected by the finalized rule. Now, California lawmakers want to do more to prepare for the pending funding cuts, such as propping up a state-based framework to pay for that coverage.

Lawmakers also considered using CalRx, a state initiative that produces lower-cost prescription drugs, to make any needed gender-affirming drugs.

One finalized federal rule already classifies “gender-affirming” procedures as non-essential health benefits.

The federal government also proposed rules to restrict access for youth through Medicare and Medicaid — health insurance offered through the government for older and low-income Americans. Hospitals and medical providers enrolled in those programs would be prohibited from offering gender transition services to youth, and those funds can’t be used to pay for such services.

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“So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

LGBT advocacy organizations claim the federal efforts have dissuaded many doctors from offering transgender services and therefore put lives at risk. JM Jaffe, executive director of Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, said Trump’s funding cuts have had a real impact on staffing and prevented them from applying to federally sourced contracts.

“In a state budget of over $300 billion, our $26 million ask is a small investment to protect and stabilize access,” Sacramento Pride said on social media.

However, opponents of the state funding criticized lawmakers for excluding voices who are concerned about the effects of “gender-affirming” care.

“When millions in taxpayer dollars and irreversible medical decisions for children are on the line, lawmakers have a duty to hear all the evidence, not just one side,” Women Are Real, which advocates for women’s sex-based rights, said in a statement to The Post.

Assemblymember Joe Patterson, a Republican, said at the hearing he thinks California is going in the wrong direction on the issue.

“The realization that a lot of western society has abandoned transgender affirming care for children, California continues to go full steam ahead on it,” he said.

The deadline for lawmakers to pass a state budget is June 15.