OU Health announced plans to end certain gender reassignment treatments across their hospitals. Their decision comes in the wake of a controversial bill being discussed at the State Capitol.
House Bill 1007 would provide OU hospitals with nearly $40 million in ARPA funds, on the condition that they don't offer certain gender medicine services.
Oklahoma representative Randy Randleman tells Fox 25 there are some misunderstandings about his bill, while a parent of a transgender youth calls this piece of legislation "despicable."
"What I feel like has happened is our trans youth are getting bullied," Johnna James said.
Johnna James has a 16-year-old son named Sterling.
"He was assigned female at birth. His pronouns now are he and him. He wasn't okay."
Everything changed for Sterling, formerly Carly Joe, when he started treatment at OU Children's Roy G. Biv clinic.
"We have a different kid than we did last year. I don't have any regrets about our decision, and neither does he."
Johnna reflects on a tough, yet rewarding process, as two workers tell Fox 25 they're facing harassment over the same services that helped Sterling. They tell our newsroom they've also had to increase security at the clinic.
Randleman helped write HB1007, which he says is a pandemic relief bill for youth mental health.
"We're going to use this bill to treat mental health services," Randleman said. "We're not going to take this money and do a heart transplant. We're not going to do any gender restructuring. It's all going to be on mental health."
The Trevor Project's 2022 survey reported 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year.
"This isn't denying [transgender people] the funding. If that was already there from some of these things, we're going to serve it."
OU Health tells Fox 25 they were going to use the funds for a new mental and behavioral health facility. But, they "never intended to provide such care," or gender reassignment services. The staff says they've been planning to do away with some of those treatments.
"I'm not taking any money from you," Randleman said. "You go ahead, use what you've got and treat those people just like you're doing now." '
Randleman says he supports transgender people, and those wanting to seek reassignment treatment. He adds that if there were more funding available, he would want it to go towards supporting folks who are transitioning.
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