Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s administration has no policy on whether the state’s Medicaid system will pay for surgeries, hormone therapy, or puberty blockers for so-called transgender adults and children. That is worrisome, and it is personal.
Even in Idaho, the lack of a policy statement means public dollars could be used to help people medically address their belief that gender is fluid and alterable with a regimen of surgeries, chemicals, and special clothing. It’s a problem I anticipated a few years ago when convicted child moletster Adree Edmo had taxpayers pay for his sex parts surgery while he was in prison. At the time, I warned that additional prison inmates would follow suit, and that the state Medicaid system wouldn’t be far behind.
Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppeson told me in an email that the agency “has not approved surgical procedures for diagnoses of gender dysphoria." While that's good, he added, “The department also continues to have no policy related to authorizing surgeries or hormone therapies for gender dysphoria and there are no current plans to implement one.”
About half of state Medicaid programs cover procedures intended to try and flip a person’s gender from male to female and vice versa, according to a pro-LGBT group that tracks such matters.
Georgia just settled a lawsuit in which it agreed to pay for the surgeries of two men who think they're women, leaving only eight states that explicitly exclude transgender procedures from Medicaid.
But in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is backing a formal prohibition. A teenager who had her breasts surgically removed at 15 to become a boy testified in support of the proposal at a hearing earlier this month saying, “I was unknowingly physically cutting off my true self from my body, irreversibly and painfully."
Idaho could quickly and easily restrict coverage with a change to the state’s administrative rules or Medicaid coverage policies. But if Little or the executive branch agency he oversees won’t take the steps necessary to prevent public dollars from being used to irrevocably butcher and alter people for the sake of bodily fantasy fulfilmnet, the next step would be for the Legislature to tackle the issue in January, either by including the restriction as part of the state budget or passing a law that prohibits public dollars from paying for trans medical procedures, in much the way state law already prohibits those funds from being used for abortions.
This is important as more and more children and young adults are exposed to the absurd and deeply destructive idea that there’s something wrong with them because they don’t conform to societal expectations for how they act or dress.
It’s a phenomenon I understand well, and have spent many years studying. As a child growing up in the 1980s, I started taking an active interest in girl’s clothes, activities, and interactions. I wanted to do what they were doing, to wear what they were wearing, and I often did.
By the time I was 18, I was so committed to the delusion that my clothing could somehow magically transform me into a girl, that I had carefully plotted going to my senior prom in a very pretty pink satin dress that matched what my girl friends were wearing. I would have gone through with it, too, but not for the fact that the 1990 gubernatorial debate was the same night and my interest in public policy and journalism eclipsed my desire to crossdress at my school’s dance.
Today, the “experts” call what I experienced gender dysphoria or autogynephilia. It’s really just part of growing up and figuring one’s brain out, which is, it turns out, a lifetime chore. At age 50, I estimate another 50 years will do the trick. I do know enough about myself to understand that were I growing up in 2022, I'd be targeted for gender transition.
Clothing, surgeries, and hormones can alter how you look or feel, but that doesn’t change the inalterable truth about who you are, male or female.
For the most part and for the vast majority of the population, transgenderism is not real. Rather, it is a growing phenomenon egged on by the media and radical activists, which have decided that a person’s pronouns are whatever they choose them to be. These beliefs are validated by the medical establishment, which stands to make billions of dollars off of cosmetic surgeries and pharmaceuticals. And it’s reinforced by government schools that have gender affirmation protocols that even conspire to keep confused kids away from their parents.
What media, doctors, and educators should do instead is remind people, young children especially, that there's nothing wrong with them and they're beautiful as they are. Instead, our babies are told they're broken but curable with the right medical intervention.
With access to treatments via Medicaid, it is only a matter of time before taxpayers are regularly subsidizing the fantasy that science can impart on an individual a different gender.
Idaho officials need to take this issue seriously by passing the policies that prevent government programs from being used to facilitate such madness.
