Mississippi Today

What to know about gender-affirming care in Mississippi

Published

2 years ago

February 13, 2023

What to know about gender-affirming care in Mississippi

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
February 13, 2023

Mississippi lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans kids this session, sparking fear among LGBTQ+ Mississippians and their families and allies.

House Bill 11125, also known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures” (REAP) Act, would prevent Mississippi’s roughly 2,400 trans kids and their families from getting hormone therapy or puberty blockers in the state. Lawmakers, contradicting the recommendations of every major medical association in the U.S., have likened gender-affirming care to child abuse and say the bill will protect children.

Trans Mississippians and their allies have said the bill is part of a coordinated attack on their rights. The bill comes two years after lawmakers banned trans athletes from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

As the bill moves through the legislative process, Mississippi Today compiled answers to some commonly asked questions about HB 1125 and gender-affirming care.

What is gender-affirming care?

Gender-affirming care refers to a broad range of interventions, from medical treatment to psychological and social support, that aims to affirm an individual’s gender identity, especially when it is different from the one they were assigned at birth, according to the World Health Organization. It seeks to reduce gender dysphoria, the distress trans people can experience when their physical features do not match their gender identity. The Transgender Care Navigation Program at the University of California, San Francisco, says gender-affirming care can range from “coming out” to friends and family, using different pronouns and changing one’s hairstyle, clothing to going on puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery.

Puberty blockers are a type of medication that prevents sex organs from producing estrogen or testosterone. They are reversible and have been used for decades for precocious puberty, the development of secondary sex characteristics at a young age, in cisgender kids. Hormone therapy – the prescription of estrogen or testosterone – typically starts at 16-years-old for trans kids.

For trans kids, who must have parental consent, the goal of gender-affirming care is often to give them time to determine if they want to go through puberty corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth or if they want to transition, said Lee Pace, a nurse practitioner and co-owner of Spectrum: The Other Clinic, the only transgender medical clinic in Mississippi.

Gender-affirming care is recommended by every major medical association in the United States. It is also evidenced-based and, contrary to the title of HB 1125, not considered “experimental” by the medical community.

In a blog post on the American Medical Association’s website, the president, Jack Resneck, wrote that, “studies have consistently demonstrated that providing gender-affirming care that is both age-appropriate and evidence-based leads to improved mental health outcomes. Conversely, denying such care is linked to a greater incidence of anxiety, depression and self-harm.”

Nationally, trans youth attempt suicide at a rate more than four times their cisgender peers due to social stigma and discrimination. Research has repeatedly shown that gender-affirming care significantly boosts the chances that trans kids will live to see adulthood. A study published last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association found that over the course of a year, gender-affirming care was associated with 60% reduced odds of moderate to severe depression and 73% less odds of suicidal thoughts.

Are trans youth undergoing gender-confirmation surgery in Mississippi?

No. On the House floor, Rep. Nick Bain, R-Corinth, could not name a single instance of a trans kid undergoing gender-confirmation surgery in Mississippi.

There is no medical clinic in Mississippi that offers gender-confirmation surgery to trans kids, according to Pace and other advocates for the state’s trans community. In general, surgery is not recommended for trans kids by medical organizations that support other forms of gender-affirming care for youth.

No clinic in Mississippi provides what’s commonly called “bottom surgery” to trans people of any age, though adults can access chest surgery in the state.

A handful of trans kids in Mississippi are receiving gender-affirming care. At Spectrum, Pace estimated that in the last two years, he has seen 30 trans kids for care and less than half have had parental consent to go on puberty blockers. The number of trans kids across the country who are on puberty blockers is similarly small. According to an investigation in Reuters based on insurance claims, just 1,390 trans kids ages 6-17 in the United States were prescribed puberty blockers in 2021.

How would HB 1125 be enforced?

HB 1125 is enforced by a civil, not criminal, process in which anyone who “aids or abets” gender-affirming care for a trans child could be sued for monetary damages for up to 30 years. In addition, doctors who continue to provide gender-affirming care after the bill passes could lose their license.

The State Board of Medical Licensure, which would enforce the bill’s provision revoking providers’ licenses, didn’t respond to questions from Mississippi Today. The University of Mississippi Medical Center, which has provided gender-affirming care to trans kids at its LGBTQ-focused TEAM Clinic, said, “we have no comment for now.”

McKenna Raney-Gray, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi’s LGBTQ Justice Project, said on a call last month that the bill is designed to make it so doctors in Mississippi have no incentive to provide gender-affirming care.

How would this legislation affect access to gender-affirming care in Mississippi?

The bill will go into effect immediately. Spectrum is likely the one provider in the state offering gender-affirming care to trans kids, Pace said, and he will stop treating the handful of 16 and 17-year-old trans teenagers in his care the moment the bill passes. His wife and co-owner of the clinic, Stacie Pace, said they will likely post signs on the clinic’s front door saying they no longer accept trans children.

It is unclear if the bill will prevent doctors in Mississippi from referring families and trans kids to out-of-state providers.

Still, the small number of families seeking gender-affirming medical care involving puberty blockers or hormone treatment will have to go out of state if the bill passes, though some people worry this also would not be allowed under the bill’s “aids and abets” clause.

During a Senate Judiciary B committee hearing last month, Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said he did not think the bill would prevent families from going out of state for care.

“We only control the law within the boundaries of the state of Mississippi,” he said. “Now if parents use it to go to New York or wherever they want to go – L.A. – and do this, that would be controlled by the laws in that state.”

Who supports HB 1125, and why?

The bill is authored by Rep. Gene Newman, R-Pearl. He has not responded to a request for comment from Mississippi Today. It is backed by a coalition of powerful Republican lawmakers in Mississippi, including Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, and endorsed by conservative and religious organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom.

These lawmakers and groups have cast the measure as a way to protect children in Mississippi, sometimes likening gender-affirming care to child abuse. At a rally last month, Gunn said he did not think children in Mississippi should be allowed the choice to transition with puberty blockers or hormones.

“We have decided as a society that children are not always capable of making decisions based on age, lack of maturity and lack of understanding,” he said. “Is there any more consequential decision than changing one’s sex?”

Reeves echoed Gunn during his State of the State address.

“The fact is that we set age restrictions on driving a car and on getting a tattoo,” Reeves said. “We don’t let 11- year- olds enter an R-rated movie alone, yet some would have us believe that we should push permanent, body-altering surgeries on them at such a young age.”

What do trans Mississippians, their supportive families and providers of gender-affirming care think of the bill?

Trans Mississippians call the bill an attack on their rights. Jensen Luke Matar, director of the nonprofit Trans Program, said on a call last month that lawmakers are using trans Mississippians as political bait.

“It’s just chess,” said Matar, a trans man. “They’re playing chess, and they’re using the most vulnerable population as their pawns.”

Supportive parents are devastated by the measure and afraid of what will happen if their trans kids can no longer receive gender-affirming care, Pace said. Many parents are still trying to figure out how to tell their kids that Mississippi is considering this bill, according to parents who spoke with Mississippi Today on the condition of anonymity. Some are considering the possibility of moving away to states like California and Colorado that have laws protecting gender-affirming care.

Providers of gender-affirming care in Mississippi say the bill will contribute to increased mental illness among LGBTQ+ Mississippians and are worried it will lead to higher suicide rates if it passes.

“The number one thing, if this bill goes into effect? A lot of dead kids,” Stacie Pace told Mississippi Today. “This law goes into effect, it is, in my opinion, the direct cause of youth suicide.”

What forms of gender-affirming care for trans minors would still be permitted under HB 1125?

Raney-Gray of the ACLU said the bill will not ban social transitioning, such as using new pronouns or wearing different clothes, for trans youth in Mississippi.

It remains unclear how the bill could affect access to gender-affirming care that is provided through a counselor or if that would fall under the measure’s “aids and abets” clause. Counselors across the state who have worked with trans people told Mississippi Today that if they accept a trans child as a client, they would seek legal guidance.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Senate panel weighs how much — or whether — to cut state taxes

Published

7 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2024-11-04 15:42:00

A group of state senators on Monday grappled with how much to slash state taxes or if they should cut them at all, portending a major policy debate at the Capitol for next year’s legislative session.

The Senate Fiscal Policy Study Group solicited testimony from the state government’s leading experts on budget, economic and tax policies to prepare for an almost certain intense debate in January over how much they should trim state taxes while balancing the need to fund government services.

Senate Finance Chairman Josh Harkins, a Republican from Flowood whose committee has jurisdiction over tax policy, told Mississippi Today that he wanted senators to have basic facts in front of them before they help decide next year if Mississippi should cut taxes.

“We’re getting a tax cut the next two years whether we do anything or not,” Harkins said. “I just want to make sure we have all the facts in front of people to understand we have a clear picture of how much revenue we’re bringing in.”

Mississippi is already phasing in a major tax cut. After a raucous debate in 2022, lawmakers agreed to phase in an income tax cut. In two years it will leave Mississippi with a flat 4% tax on income over $10,000, one of the lowest rates in the nation.

However, the top two legislative leaders, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who oversees the Senate and House Speaker Jason White, have both recently said they want legislators to consider new tax cut policies.

Hosemann, the Republican leader of the Senate, has publicly said he would like to see the state’s grocery tax, the highest of its kind in the nation, reduced, though he hasn’t specified how much of a reduction or how long it would take for the cut to be implemented.

White, a Republican from West, said last week that he would like to see the state’s 4% income tax phased out and have the state’s 7% grocery tax cut in half over time.

“We are hoping to construct a tax system that, yes, prioritizes certain needs in our state, but it also protects and rewards taxpayers,” White said last week.

But it’s difficult to collect accurate data on the state’s grocery tax, and state lawmakers must grapple with a laundry list of spending needs and obligations based on testimony from state agency leaders on Monday.

Mississippi currently has a 7% sales tax, which is applied to groceries. The state collects the tax but remits 18.5% back to cities. For many municipalities, the sales tax is a significant source of revenue.

If state lawmakers want to reduce the grocery tax without impacting cities, they could pass a new law to change the diversion amounts or appropriate enough money to make the municipalities whole.

State Revenue Commissioner Chris Graham said the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the agency in charge of collecting state taxes, does not have a mechanism in place for accurately capturing how much money cities collect in grocery taxes. This is because the tax on groceries is the same as non-grocery items.

However, Graham estimates that the state collects roughly $540 million in taxes from grocery items.

The other problem lawmakers would have in implementing significant tax cuts is a growing list of spending needs in Mississippi, a state with abject poverty, water and sewer and other infrastructure woes and some of the worst health metrics in the nation.

Representatives from the Legislative Budget Office, the group that advises lawmakers on tax and spending policy, told senators that lawmakers will also be faced with rising costs in the public employee retirement system, the Medicaid budget, public education, state employee health insurance, and state infrastructure projects.

State agencies, including the employee retirement system, also requested $751 million more for the coming budget year.

“That’s the billion dollar question, I guess,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson, a Republican from Vicksburg, said. “How we’re able to fund basic government services?”

Harkins and Hopson said the committee would likely meet again before the Legislature convenes for its 2025 session on January 7.

A House committee on tax cuts has also been holding hearings, and White in September held a summit on tax policy.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Already dire lack of affordable housing for low-income Mississippians on verge of worsening

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Simeon Gates – 2024-11-04 11:00:00

In Mississippi, where there’s already a dearth of 50,000 or more affordable homes for extremely low-income residents, that number could grow in the next five years.

Housing units available under the federal Low Income Tax Credit program could lose their affordability by 2030 –a number estimated nationwide to be 350,000 with 2,917 in Mississippi, alone; 496 in the state already have.

The federal program responsible for most of the nation’s affordable housing is expiring.

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit, introduced as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, provides for developers to buy, build and restore low-income housing units. Under the deal, the housing only needs to stay low-rent for 30 years. Construction began in the early 1990s.

Some LIHTC housing will remain affordable due to other subsidies, nonprofits, state law and individual landlords.

“I think the low-income housing tax credit has done everything that it can to address the need for affordable housing around the state,” said Scott Spivey, executive director of the Mississippi Housing Corporation, a state office that administers the program and works with the state government and those in the affordable housing industry to create and support affordable housing

Spivey supports the proposed Affordable Housing Credit and Improvement Act, a federal bill that would expand upon the low-income housing tax credit in several ways, including giving developers more credit for certain projects for low-income households and changing tenant eligibility rules.

The bill was introduced in the House and the Senate last session, and is co-sponsored by Mississippi Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker and in the House by Reps. Mike Ezell, and Michael Guest. As of this spring, both bills are in committee.

While housing has become a major issue for Americans, getting legislation passed has been challenging. “Everybody knows that housing is an issue, but it gets caught up with everything else…and it kind of gets lost in the shuffle,” said Spivey.

This issue is especially important in Mississippi, where demand for housing is high across all incomes.

“All the market studies that we see that come with the applications tell us that there’s a huge need for affordable housing across the state at all the income bands” said Spivey.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, almost a third of Mississippi renters are extremely low income; 65% of them are severely cost burdened, meaning they spent more than half their income on rent. The majority of these households are seniors, disabled people, single caregivers of young children, people enrolled in school, or other.

Director of Housing Law at the Mississippi Center for Justice, Ashley Richardson said housing problems worsened after Mississippi stopped participating in the federal rental assistance program in 2022.

MCJ’s work on housing includes a statewide eviction hotline, investigating instances of housing discrimination, and more.

Richardson praised the LIHTC program, but echoed Spivey’s concerns. “Even with the affordable housing we do have in Mississippi, we are still at a lack,” she said.

The National Housing Preservation Database estimates Mississippi is short 52,421 affordable and available rental homes for low-income people. The National Low Income Housing Coalition puts the figure at 49,478.

Richardson wants the state to deal with issues like providing more tenant protections and rental assistance. There’s also a need to improve homes that are rundown or in poor condition, and many housing nonprofits are running out of funding.

Spivey said people should talk to their property managers and learn about their rights. MHC’s website has resources for homebuyers and renters.

As the housing crisis goes on, there are options for people struggling to find and keep affordable housing and an effort to take action at the federal and state levels.

Some aspiring low-income homeowners may qualify for Habitat for Humanity, a program that builds homes for families in need. Families who qualify work on the homes alongside volunteers, pay an affordable mortgage and receive financial literacy education.

New applicants must meet the qualifications, including a good debt-income ratio, 125 hours of sweat equity and taking classes on financial literacy, home repairs, and being a good neighbor.

Merrill McKewen, executive director for Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Capital Area, emphasized the importance of housing to individuals and communities.

“There are untold studies that have been done that, you’ve gotta have a safe, decent, affordable place to live. The children are better students, the parents are better employees…it grounds you to a community that you can contribute to and be a part of. It is the American dream, to own a home, which is what we’re all about,” she said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Mississippi Election 2024: What will be on Tuesday’s ballot?

Published

11 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Staff Editor

mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-11-04 10:00:00

Mississippians will go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5, to elect federal and state judicial posts and some local offices, such as for election commissioners and school board members.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. To find your polling place, use the secretary of state’s locator, or call your local county circuit clerk.

The following is a list of the candidates for federal and judicial posts with brief bios:

President

Kamala Harris, current vice president and Democratic nominee for president. Her running mate is Tim Walz.
Donald Trump, former president and current Republican nominee. His running mate is J.D. Vance.
Robert Kennedy Jr. remains on the ballot in Mississippi even though he has endorsed Trump. His running mate is Nicole Shanahan.
Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate. Her running mate is Rudolph Ware.
Five other candidates will be on the Mississippi ballot for president. For a complete list of presidential candidates, see the sample ballot.

U.S. Senate

Ty Pinkins is the Democratic nominee. He is a Rolling Fork native and attorney, representing, among other clients, those alleging unfair working conditions. He served 21 years in the U.S. Army, including combat stints, other overseas deployment and posts in the White House,
Roger Wicker is the Republican incumbent senator. He resides in Tupelo and has served in the U.S. Senate since late 2007 after first being appointed to fill a vacancy by then-Gov. Haley Barbour. He was elected to the post in 2008. He previously served in the U.S. House and as a state senator. He is an attorney and served in the United States Air Force.

House District 1

Dianne Black is the Democratic nominee. She is a small business owner in Olive Branch in DeSoto County.
Trent Kelly is the Republican incumbent. He was elected to the post in a special election in 2015. He previously served as a district attorney and before then as a prosecuting attorney for the city of Tupelo. He is a major general in the Mississippi Army National Guard.

House District 2

Bennie Thompson is the Democratic incumbent. He was first elected to the post in 1993. Before then, he served as a Hinds County supervisor and as alderman and then as mayor of Bolton.
Ronald Eller is the Republican nominee. He grew up in West Virginia and moved to central Mississippi after retiring from the military. He is a physician assistant and business owner.

House District 3

Michael Guest is the Republican incumbent and is unopposed.

House District 4

Mike Ezell is the Republican incumbent first being elected in 2022. He previously served as Jackson County sheriff.
Craig Raybon is the Democratic nominee. Raybon is from Gulfport and began a nonprofit “focused on helping out the community as a whole.”

Central District Supreme Court

Jenifer Branning currently serves as a member of the state Senate from Neshoba County.
Byron Carter is a Hinds County attorney and previously served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Armis Hawkins.
James Kitchens is the incumbent. He has served on the state’s highest court since 2008.
Ceola James previously served on the Court of Appeals.
Abby Gale Robinson is a Jackson attorney. She previously was a commercial builder.

Southern District Supreme Court

Dawn Beam is the incumbent, having been first appointed in 2016 by then-Gov. Phil Bryant and later winning election to the post. She is a former chancellor for the Hattiesburg area.
David Sullivan is an attorney in Harrison County and has been a municipal judge in D’Iberville since 2019. His father, Michael, previously served on the state Supreme Court.

Northern District Supreme Court seats

Robert Chamberlin of DeSoto County is unopposed.
James Maxwell of Lafayette County is unopposed.

Court of Appeals 5^th District seat

Ian Baker is an assistant district attorney in Harrison County.
Jennifer Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties.
Amy St. Pe is a Municipal Court judge in Gautier.