Latest news with #AshLazarusOrr
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘He Is Working to Erase Us': A Trans Activist on the Real Reason Trump's Budget Bans Trans Care
Ash Lazarus Orr (he/they) has served as the press relations manager at Advocates for Trans Equality for two and a half years. He has been an organizer in West Virginia for over a decade, focusing on the intersectionalities of gender-affirming care and abortion access. They're also an abortion storyteller for We Testify and Planned Parenthood. Transgender rights are once again on the chopping block for Republicans' political gain. The House's proposed budget in the so-called 'big, beautiful bill' includes measures that would deny life-saving, medically necessary, and evidence-based transition-related health care to trans people of all ages — banning it from Medicaid (where an estimated 152,000 trans Americans are enrolled) and no longer requiring Obamacare plans to cover it. This bill intentionally puts trans people's lives at risk, and is just the latest in a series of calculated attempts to divide and distract the American people, while dehumanizing some of the country's most vulnerable citizens. More from Rolling Stone Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over Move to Expel Foreign Students Trump Resumes Effort to Destroy Economy Trump's Tax Bill Would Decimate the Affordable Care Act The bill is being sold to the public as a set of historic tax cuts. But in reality, it's not about fiscal responsibility: It's a cruel strategy by anti-trans, extremist politicians to push trans, nonbinary, and intersex people out of public life. From our workplaces and schools to our health care, housing, and basic freedoms, the Trump administration and its allies are working to erase us. They are trying to make it harder just to exist, let alone thrive. Let me be perfectly clear: transition-related health care — which includes everything form hormones and puberty blockers to voice therapy, mental health support, and gender-affirming primary care — is health care. It is safe and essential, backed by decades of medical research, and supported by every major medical and mental health association in the United States. It's recognized as being safe and effective, and essential. These proposed cuts are flying in the face of medical consensus. Stripping away health care for anybody is un-American. Denying trans people access to medically necessary care goes against the most basic values that this country was founded on: freedom, dignity, and the right to pursue life and liberty. Health care is a human right for everyone — including trans people. Along the same lines, bodily autonomy is a core American value. Like all Americans, trans people and their families should be able to go to their medical providers and not have politicians interfering in these deeply personal medical decisions. We must be free to pursue, alongside our doctors, the medical care that lets us survive and flourish. This proposed ban undermines our fundamental right to privacy and self determination. Unfortunately, this bill is only the beginning. It's part of a broader political agenda and calculated strategy to fuel fear, blame marginalized communities, and distract the public away from the real causes of economic hardship — corporate greed, failing infrastructure, and chronic under-investment in public services. Instead of tackling these problems, Republicans are continuing to fuel manufactured outrage to score political points, because this administration wants people pointing fingers at their neighbors instead of holding the powerful accountable. In practice, this ban on transition-related health care would do nothing but disrupt an already overwhelmed health care system. The very people who are already most vulnerable to systemic discrimination and economic instability are now being potentially stripped of access to life-saving care, and it's all for political show. If passed, this bill is going to affect every single person that is utilizing Medicaid. It will disproportionately impact folks who live in low-income, rural, or spread-out regions. We are going to see so many folks who are already residing in health care deserts — which are continuing to grow year by year — lose access. People will suffer because of this. Though we have been singled out in this bill, trans people are just like everyone else you know. We are your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues. Like every other person in this country, we deserve access to health care. This is a moment to choose to be on the right side of history. Lawmakers must reject bigotry and show leadership by defending access to trans health care — not take it away from vulnerable communities. Again, this is not just about trans people: laws like this one, if passed, will impact every single person using programs like Medicaid, and those who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. I strongly encourage folks to reach out to their senators and demand that they vote no on this bill. Because trans people deserve equal rights, and to live our lives fully and authentically. As told to Elizabeth Yuko Best of Rolling Stone Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best The United States of Weed Gaming Levels Up
Axios
04-04-2025
- Health
- Axios
Trump uses child abuse awareness proclamation to bash transgender people
President Trump 's decision to target transgender care in a proclamation declaring April National Child Abuse Prevention Month "betrays" the month's purpose, LGBTQ advocates said. Why it matters: Framing the trans youth experience as "abuse" further stigmatizes an already vulnerable community, as the Trump administration tries to erase trans people from American life through policies limiting access to health care, careers, sports, education and more. Driving the news: Trump's Thursday proclamation singled out transgender care, labeling it a form of child abuse without acknowledging the most common risk factors for neglected or abused children. "It is deeply disingenuous for Trump to use National Child Abuse Prevention Month as a platform to attack and stigmatize the trans community," Ash Lazarus Orr, a spokesperson for Advocates for Trans Equality, told Axios. Reality check: Gender-affirming care is supported as both medically appropriate and potentially life saving for children and adults by major medical associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. Drugs like puberty blockers are temporary and reversible. They are given to trans youth and non-trans youth who experience early onset puberty. What they're saying: Trump's proclamation "is vile and upsetting but importantly it is just a press release," Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project said in a statement on Instagram. "It does not change the law or direct any agency action. But it does continue to suggest that the government is moving towards efforts to explicitly criminalize trans life and support of trans people." "Using the language of 'child protection' to justify the oppression of trans youth betrays the very values this month is meant to uphold," Orr said. "Denying trans youth medical care won't change who they are." Threat level: Trump wrote that "a stable family with loving parents" is a safeguard against child abuse, but most victims are abused by a parent, according to the National Children's Alliance. By the numbers: In 2022, a reported 434,000 perpetrators abused or neglected a child, per the alliance. 76% of children were victimized by a parent or legal guardian in substantiated child abuse cases, meaning that child protective services agencies determined that abuse or neglect occurred. Zoom out: Trump in January signed an executive order to defund youth gender-affirming care and a separate one threatening funding for K-12 schools that accommodate transgender children.
CBC
28-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Trump passport policy a 'fundamental rejection of my identity' says transgender plaintiff
Ash Lazarus Orr, a transgender man from West Virginia, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order that recognizes male and female as the only two sexes on government documents. This order has prevented Orr from getting a passport that matches his gender identity. In early January, Orr was flying from West Virginia to New York City. At the TSA security checkpoint, he was accused of presenting fake documents as he had a male designation on his driver's license but a female one on his passport. Orr said he needed to explain in great detail that he was a trans man. "Not only was this a frightening and humiliating experience, but it was just so invasive," Orr told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. He went to renew his passport four days before Trump took office to request a passport with a name change and a sex designation that reflects who he is. But more than two months have passed, and he is still waiting. Together with a group of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people, Orr is suing the administration over the passport policy. Orr says he always travels with his passport on domestic and international flights, though a passport is not required to fly domestically in the U.S. He spoke to Köksal about how the delay has impacted his life. Here is part of their conversation. Are you going to be able to live without a passport that represents who you are? The reality is, if I receive my passport back and the sex designation marker is incorrect, receiving that passport that misgendered me isn't just a bureaucratic mistake. It's a fundamental rejection of my identity and my existence. International travel becomes a minefield of humiliation, of invasive scrutiny, and the risk of being denied entry at borders. It is very difficult to know that I am having to juggle and [weigh] my safety versus traveling not only for pleasure but also for health care. What have you been told about why you haven't received your passport yet? My application went from being in-process to not available, and that's when I began to reach out to the passport agency. They were telling me we have no further guidance for you at this time. After a few weeks, I received a phone call from a supervisor in San Francisco who was overseeing my application, and I was basically told that I needed to prove my biological sex. I was told you'll be receiving something either via email or certified mail explaining what more we need from you. About a week after that phone call, I did receive something in the mail saying that at this point in time, they are unable to continue on my application until I'm able to prove my biological sex. Since then, I have not heard anything else, and I do not have a passport at this moment in time. The Justice Department says this policy "does not violate the equal protection guarantees of the constitution," and has also said, "some plaintiffs additionally allege that having inconsistent identification documents will heighten the risk that an official will discover that they are transgender. But the department is not responsible for plaintiffs' choice to change their sex designation for state documents but not their passport." How do you respond to what they're saying there? When you hear that type of language and just the framing of this overall issue — this constant scrutiny really does erode the dignity of the trans community. When we are having our identities questioned in public spaces, be it at work or by government agencies, [it's] reinforcing the harmful idea that we are not who we say we are. This invalidation takes such a mental and emotional toll on our well-being. We regularly face challenges in accessing essential services. That includes health care, education, and legal documentation, because these systems are designed to question and police our identities rather than affirm them. WATCH | Transgender Americans feel unsafe following Trump changes: Trans Americans look to Canada for safety after Trump's re-election 2 months ago Duration 7:51 As U.S. President Donald Trump rolls back trans rights in America, some families are looking to leave the country. CBC's Katie Nicholson talks to people caught up in the climate of fear, including parents who are considering claiming asylum in Canada. So being questioned about our identity in public settings puts us at even more risk of harassment or violence, be it at DMV offices or TSA screenings, or even when using the restroom. [It] increases risk of discrimination in employment and housing and healthcare for trans individuals. When we are having the government and institutions casting doubt on our identities as trans people, it's sending a broader message that legal recognition of gender identity is conditional, rather than a fundamental right. Ash, this case is called Orr v. Trump. How did it feel to see your name next to the U.S. president's? There's been a lot of anxiety, just general fear about my safety and my family's safety. But also just a lot of pride. I'm very proud to be a trans West Virginian and I'm very proud to see my name standing up for not only myself but for the entire trans community across the United States. I've just been gaining a lot of strength, not only from my community, but from those who came before me. Knowing that we are fighting for equality for our community, that's really just helping me to stay focused on what the end goal is here.
