Iowa Republicans Just Made Life Deadlier for Trans People

I want to use my spare time doing game development, but instead I’m scrambling to figure out how to get my 11yo trans daughter on my insurance since the Iowa Republicans have decided that her existing insurance won’t cover the gender-affirming care she needs in or out of state.

We had to tell her that she couldn’t pee in the bathroom at school that she always pees in. The look on her face broke our hearts.

It might seem like no big deal, but it is. The Iowa Republicans passed a law to make my daughter more anxious and a bigger target for bullying.

When she needs to use the bathroom, she can’t just go. She has to be strategic now. She has to occupy her mind with worrying about going before her class on a different floor of the building or risk being too far away from the “special” bathroom to make it back in time.

“What if I pee my pants at school?” she worried last night before bed.

Let’s leave aside the ostracizing and bullying she’ll potentially endure when she has to use a “special” bathroom or wets herself because she couldn’t.

Laws about where my daughter can pee are deadly.

Did you know that lots of trans people find themselves getting urinary tract infections or kidney issues because they find themselves too anxious or worried for their safety in public restrooms?

People DIE from UTIs, especially if they find themselves discriminated against in healthcare the way trans people tend to be.

Thanks, Iowa Republicans, for cruelly making my daughter’s school and her bladder part of your battleground.

Instead of addressing hunger, homelessness, poison in our waterways, or anything of import, the Iowa Republicans decided that inflicting death and destruction on the most marginalized and already hurt people in our society was “being deemed of immediate importance.”