Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, signed a bill on June 12 requiring health insurance companies to cover transgender surgeries, defying the national trend of Republican governors who oppose the practice.
In May, Oregon’s Democrat governor signed a virtually identical law requiring health insurance companies to cover all transgender surgeries. Lombardo’s signature on the Nevada bill follows this precedent.
A second bill Lombardo signed earlier in June mandates that the state’s Department of Corrections adopt mental and physical health standards for transgender and gender-nonconforming inmates, as well as cultural competency training for officers.
Six state legislatures with Democrat majorities, including Nevada’s, have passed bills in favor of transgender medical procedures and policies. However, Lombardo’s signature comes as Republican governors in other states have signed legislation banning transgender surgeries and hormone treatments for minors.
Additionally, Lombardo defied party norms earlier this month when he signed a bill that codified existing protections to ensure that commissions supervising medical licenses do not discipline or disqualify physicians who provide abortions.
But Lombardo has also been criticized by transgender advocates for vetoing a measure on June 3 that would have protected providers of transgender surgeries and similar services from losing their medical licenses and also would have prohibited the executive branch from assisting in out-of-state prosecutions related to transgender procedures.
Critics asserted that the lack of these protections would exacerbate Nevada’s shortage of providers willing to perform the procedures.
Lombardo, a former Clark County sheriff and the only Republican to unseat a Democrat incumbent governor in the midterm elections of 2022, has received criticism from within his own party for signing the latest measure.
Many believe the governor’s June 3 veto is the reason more significant transgender surgeries have been deemed “medically necessary” rather than “cosmetic” by insurance companies in Nevada, resulting in more transgender surgeries being covered.
Other Republicans’ Response to Transgender Issues
Elsewhere in the Republican Party, GOP lawmakers are probing whether ideology is behind the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) advocacy for transgender treatments.
In April of this year, Republican lawmakers demanded that HHS provide evidence to justify the administration’s support of what they described as dangerous transgender medical procedures for minors.
“We are increasingly alarmed that HHS’ advocacy has led health professionals to prescribe dangerous and experimental drugs and surgeries to troubled children,” reads a March 29 letter (pdf) to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, signed by Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) and 13 of his Republican colleagues.
The letter expresses concern over the HHS’s support for “life-altering” procedures and the use of tax dollars to finance them.
Risch and his colleagues in both chambers of Congress have expressed a desire for assurance that procedures are evidence-based and “not ideologically motivated,” and that HHS upholds “the moral responsibility it owes to parents and kids.”
Criticism of Transgender Medical Decision Making
Earlier this year, a transgender advocacy organization criticized the medical establishment for permitting ideology, as opposed to science, to guide health care for individuals with gender-related distress.
The Gender Dysphoria Alliance (GDA) sent an open letter (pdf) to over 30 medical organizations in February discussing the issue.
GDA wants medical providers to conduct “an independent, systematic review of the evidence” and thorough psychological assessments before using hormones and surgeries on people of any age. The group is particularly concerned about children who could be vulnerable to “unnecessary harm.”
“The debate over transgender health care has recently escalated to a fever pitch,” GDA pointed out. In recent months, some laws have attempted to curtail or outlaw gender-related procedures for minors, while other proposals would ensure access to cross-sex hormones and surgeries.
The group claims that emotions and ideology are propelling the arguments in support of some current medical decisions, rather than facts.
The group also reports that activists have attempted “to shut down any critical inquiry,” coercing or censoring those who try to share concerns about the push to medicalize gender-questioning patients.
“We, as members of the transgender community … wish to disavow these tactics and to request our health care be as safe, rigorously researched, and apolitical as every other health care field,” GDA said.
The Nevada Republican Party did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment before press time.
Janice Hisle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
