3 Democrats Join Republicans As House Passes Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Extreme Nationwide Care Ban for Trans Youth

The extreme proposal, which makes it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to minors, is the most radical anti-trans legislation to be passed by the House's Republican majority.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill is the most radical anti-trans measure to receive a vote on the House floor | Image: Gage Skidmore // Wikimedia Commons

Last week, outgoing Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) announced that she had made a deal with House GOP leadership. As part of this, Greene agreed to vote for the ‘must-pass’ National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and in exchange, the House would hold a vote on her radical anti-trans bill, H.R. 3492. This bill, the most extreme considered on the House floor so far, would institute a nationwide ban on gender-affirming care for minors by making it a felony to provide trans kids with the healthcare they need. As Greene had been promised, the House voted on the measure today.

Despite opposition to the bill from families and doctors, the House voted to pass it 216–211, with 3 Democrats—Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Don Davis (NC-01), and Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), who all have a history of anti-trans statements—voting in favour and 4 Republicans opposing it. But the fight isn’t over. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass. So far, Senate Democrats have held firm on much narrower gender-affirming care restrictions, which means, in all likelihood, this bill will not advance further.

As reflected in the vote total, not all Republicans supported it. Much of this opposition came from an unlikely source: Republican Chip Roy (TX-21), a member of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus. During yesterday’s House Rules Committee hearing, he stated that while he supports the ideas behind the bill, he’s opposed to gender-affirming care being legislated in this way at the federal level, as it abuses Congress’ authority and takes decision-making power away from individual states. Accordingly, he proposed an amendment to the bill that would limit its impact to providers that are federally funded—essentially a codification of Trump’s Executive Order 14187—but this attempt was unsuccessful. However, in spite of his issues with the bill, Roy ended up voting for it.

But Roy’s position presents something Republicans should consider when proposing anti-trans laws in Congress. After all, if a law can criminalise providing care that is legal under state law, it stands to reason that a law can also criminalise those who refuse to provide care that is illegal under state law. When it comes to transgender and reproductive rights, a law like this would set the precedent that Congress can overrule Republican states on these issues too, not just those controlled by Democrats.

In conjunction with the vote on Greene’s bill, House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04) has also scheduled a vote today on a Medicaid ban for trans minors proposed by Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw (TX-02). Given Republicans have no qualms with passing a much more extreme gender-affirming care ban, it’s all but certain Crenshaw’s bill will also pass. In fact, this exact language has already made it through the House this year: a version of this that applied to both adults and minors appeared in the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” but it was removed by the Senate.

That said, like Greene’s bill, it would still require 60 votes in the Senate—something Republicans were unable to secure back in July. And given the bill would force the 26-ish states (this figure includes Arizona and Montana, which have de facto coverage for puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and Georgia, which only covers puberty blockers) whose Medicaid programs still explicitly cover gender-affirming care for minors to pay for the treatments entirely by themselves (instead of splitting the costs with the federal government), it’s highly unlikely that the 45 Senate Democrats from these states will vote to burden their states’ budgets.

However, this news cannot be taken lightly. For the first time, a chamber of Congress has passed a nationwide gender-affirming care ban. The floodgates have effectively been opened. And simply put, Democrats must hold firm. They must not allow this radical, transphobic bill to pass in the Senate. The lives of American trans youth depend on it.