The military would not be able to pay for surgeries for transgender troops under the Senate’s version of the must-pass annual defense policy bill, legislative text released Monday evening revealed.
Transgender military kids could also lose access to hormone therapy, puberty blockers and other medication if the treatment “could result in sterilization” under another provision that was also added to the bill during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s closed-door consideration of the measure last month.
Inclusion of those amendments, which passed with the support of every committee Republican and independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, in the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, could increase the odds that restrictions on gender-affirmation care for transgender troops and family members become law after the House filled its version of the bill with similar efforts to curtail services for LGBTQ+ troops.
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The GOP-led House’s efforts to ban coverage of gender-affirmation care for transgender service members garnered considerable attention, but Republicans’ successful amendments in the Democratic-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee have so far flown under the radar. While the committee released a summary of its NDAA and staffers briefed reporters on some of its contents last month,…
