Hobbs issues orders on ‘conversion therapy,’ gender-affirming health care

In the first, the Democratic governor has defined The Associated Press as “the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to ‘convert’ LGBTQ people to heterosexual or traditional gender expectations.” targeted something. Hobbes specifically prohibits using state or federal funds to “facilitate, support, or enable” conversion therapy for minors.

Hobbes’ order includes health insurance that states can make available to themselves or university employees, including mental health services.

Mental health services available to individuals and families enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Control System, Arizona’s Medicaid program, will also be affected. About 2.5 million state residents are enrolled in his AHCCCS.

However, another law prohibits AHCCCS from paying for gender-affirming care for people enrolled in the system.

Hobbes wrote that “conversion” therapy is based on “the false premise that homosexuality and gender-diverse identities are pathological.”

Separately, Hobbs directed the state’s human resources department, the Department of Administration, to remove language exempting “sex reassignment surgery” from health policies currently available to state governments, university employees and retirees. Hobbes specifically exempts minors from compensation, which is prohibited by state law.

The order will most directly affect Russell Toomey, a transgender professor at the University of Arizona. He filed a lawsuit four years ago after being denied insurance coverage for a hysterectomy after years of seeking it.

Toomey said the state refused to pay for what he said was a “medically necessary” operation because of his gender dysphoria, even though his insurance covered other medically necessary surgeries. said he did. Lawyers said this amounted to unlawful discrimination based on gender, as the insurance is supposed to cover all “medically necessary” surgeries.

This executive order ends the lawsuit.

A broader win would be that the governor’s actions pave the way for similar coverage for other transgender workers.

Hobbes said central to both orders is how the state treats some residents.

“Our LGBTQ+ community should never have to face hatred and discrimination,” Hobbs said in a prepared statement.

“The state is leading by example on this issue,” she continued. “And we will continue to work until Arizona is a place where all individuals can participate equally in the economy and workforce without fear of discrimination or exclusion.”

Both new orders are extensions of actions Mr. Hobbes took on his first day in office in January and expand existing rules against discrimination against current and future state officials.

Rules at the time included race, sex, religion, pregnancy and veteran status. She expands to include other characteristics that cannot be taken into consideration when hiring, firing or salaries, from gender identity and marital status to culture, creed, social origin and political affiliation.

Hobbes’ expanded list also included sexual orientation, which appears to have already been addressed in a 2003 executive order issued by then-Governor Hobbes. Janet Napolitano, Democrat.

A threat to challenge the order by State Senator Jake Hoffman (R, Queen Creek) did not materialize.

Now Hobbes is targeting other practices he considers discriminatory.

She cited findings from various groups opposing the practice of conversion therapy on minors, citing dangerous consequences.

Among them, she wrote, was the American Psychological Association, which said that having conversion therapy in childhood increases the risk of suicide, depression, and substance use throughout life.

He also said the Federal Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health has concluded that conversion therapy is “coercive, potentially harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatment.”

Hobbes has no unilateral authority to outlaw the practice throughout Arizona.

That’s a question for state legislators. More than 20 states have banned the practice, but not here.

There are exceptions. Paid conversion therapy is illegal in Pima County, and the oversight board enacted a regulation in 2017. Attempts by then-Senator Vince Leach (R-Tucson) to get lawmakers to overturn the ordinance failed.

Hobbes said one of his duties to taxpayers was to “ensure that decisions were financially sound, transparent, and evidence-based, and that public health funding was discredited and ineffective.” to ensure that it is not used for dangerous activities in the country.”

Tuesday’s second executive order links Toomey’s years-long struggle to get the state to pay for the hysterectomy.

Hobbes said state insurance plans already require payment for “medically necessary” treatment.

She said only insurance policies written for state governments exclude gender reassignment surgery. The exclusion is “inconsistent” with insurance provided by state insurers to other customers, she said.

Hobbes said other states have successfully challenged this exclusion. So she sent notices to state and university employees enrolled in the program and ordered them to remove it “as soon as possible.”

Among them is Toomey, Professor of Family Studies and Human Development at UA, who talks about how young people of “sexual and sexual minorities” are making progress despite the barriers and challenges they face. I am researching how to grow.

In an interview with Capitol Media Services, Toomey said from an early age he knew he was “different.”

“I thought I was a boy at the time, but everything and everyone around me was saying, ‘No, come on, you’re a girl,'” he said.

It wasn’t until he was at least 19 that he read books and worked with a counselor and learned that there was a word for what he was going through. It is gender dysphoria, a feeling of disagreement between the sex assigned at birth and the gender identity.

Shortly thereafter, he was put on hormones and about a year later had a breast reduction surgery, all at his own expense.

“The need for a hysterectomy has been around for as long as I can remember,” Toomey said. But he said he waited to seek hysterectomy coverage until he had tenure at UA, then tried to change policy first, and then filed a lawsuit if that didn’t work.