Rep. Darren Bailey
Rep. Darren Bailey
Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) is leading the resistance against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan of taxpayer-funded sex-change operations.
“We do not need the government intruding on our private lives and at the same time we absolutely do not need government spending our tax dollars on programs that are morally offensive to most people,” Bailey said in a press release announcing that he is actively drafting legislation opposed to the proposal. “First it was the mandating of teaching LGBTQ history to our children and grandchildren and now it’s forcing taxpayers to pay for elective surgeries for sex changes. When will this stop?”
According to Bailey, Healthcare and Family Services has already started developing administrative rules in support of such coverage, which could be become available as early as this summer for Medicaid members age 21 and older who are diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria.’
The freshmen lawmaker wants his colleagues to pause for a moment before passing any bills.
“This is yet another example of why people in our part of the state want to separate from Chicago,” he said. “The governor says that supporting the LGBTQ community by this publicly funded kind of operation is the right thing to do. Well, I disagree.”
Bailey added that recent data shows that at least 1,400 of the state’s 3.1 million Medicaid members are diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria,’ and in 2018 roughly 2,500 prescriptions for hormone therapy were covered.
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