Only a Blue Wall Can Block the GOP Drive to Strip Our Health Care
Leading Off: Will Democrats have the spine to stop them? A court ruling that enables religious discrimination. Hungarians defy a dictator. The week’s top story lines.
by Billie Jean Sweeney
Seven is the number to watch as trans Americans begin the week. Republicans have slipped a ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages into President Trump’s budget bill, but Senate Democrats can stand in the way of its passage.
As the Independent’s Eric Michael Garcia reported, opposing Democrats will need to raise a point of order on that part of the bill, forcing a vote that will require the support of 60 senators for the ban to go forward.
Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, so they would need to convince seven Democrats to go along with them for their ban to become law.
It’s a good moment, urgent even, to contact your senator to stress the importance of access to gender affirming care for trans people of all ages. Gender-affirming care is backed by every major medical association in the United States as safe and beneficial.
The budget bill, which Trump brands “big and beautiful,” would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, even as its reactionary, pro-billionaire provisions would leave another 10.8 million Americans overall without insurance.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that parents have the right to have their children excused from the use of LGBTQ+ themed books in schools.
"Today’s ruling threatens the very essence of public education,” Justice Sonia Sotomayer wrote in dissent. “The Court, in effect, constitutionalizes a parental veto power over curricular choices long left to the democratic process and local administrators."
The authors and illustrators of the books that had been contested in the Maryland case heard by the court called the ruling the very essence of discrimination.
“To treat children’s books about LGBTQ+ characters differently than similar books about non-LGBTQ+ characters is discriminatory and harmful,” they said. “This decision will inevitably lead to an increasingly hostile climate for LGBTQ+ students and families, and create a less welcoming environment for all students.”
The Interfaith Alliance, which defends multi-faith religious freedom, said the ruling also opens the floodgates for discrimination against marginalized faith groups. “Christian nationalist groups may seek to prevent their children from learning about Jews, Muslims, and other faith groups, or other histories and identities they oppose.”
“Simply allowing children to learn the fundamental reality that LGBTQ people exist in the world, and to learn about their perspectives and experiences does not infringe on anyone’s First Amendment rights,” it said.
Tens of thousands of Hungarians filled the streets of the capital, Budapest, on Saturday for Pride in what the Associated Press called “an open rebuke” of the country’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orbán, who had sought to ban the event. Crowd estimates put the number at 100,000 to 200,000.
The city’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, had urged citizens to “come calmly and boldly to stand together for freedom.”
Just two weeks ago, four to six million Americans turned out at hundreds of events from coast to coast to denounce Trump’s lawless and dictatorial practices. “No Kings!” Americans said.
Billie Jean Sweeney is a news editor, press freedom advocate and trans woman.