Defense Bill that Would Rip Healthcare from Trans Children of Military Families Advances to House Floor on Party Line Vote

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House Committee on Rules today advanced a version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act that contains a provision with the sole function of stripping healthcare away from the transgender children of servicemembers, putting our national security and military readiness at risk. The legislation advanced on a party-line vote, with all Democrats opposing this provision.

"This legislation has been hijacked by Speaker Mike Johnson and anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers, who have chosen to put our national security and military readiness at risk for no other reason than to harm the transgender kids of military families," said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. "The decisions that families and doctors make for the wellbeing of their transgender kids are important and complex, especially so for military families, and the last thing they need is politicians stepping in and taking away their right to make those decisions. When this comes up in the full House, lawmakers need to vote down this damaging and dehumanizing legislation."

The committee refused to make in order an amendment proposed by Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) to strike the provisions from the bill - denying House Members an opportunity to vote specifically on this essential health care.

Also today, a coalition of nearly 300 advocacy groups sent a letter to House lawmakers, urging them to vote against an NDAA with an anti-military family, anti-trans provision. Over the weekend, Rep. Adam Smith, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, released a statement saying that this provision "injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership. In doing so, he has upended what had been a bipartisan process."

President Biden has promised repeatedly to veto any legislation that would enshrine discrimination against transgender people into law.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.