The 21 Republicans in the House — 19 in the conservative minority and two in the moderate coalition majority — are rarely united on anything, but during Monday’s amendment process on the state operating budget, they found agreement on one thing: Cutting funding for trans health care from the state budget.
Republicans rallied around extreme-right Home Republican Rep. Sarah Vance’s measure to block any funding for gender dysphoria care through the state’s health care programs unless ordered by a court. The measure was largely couched as opposition to trans care for minors, which conservatives have been targeting, but it would affect trans care for all Alaskans relying on state-funded health programs.
“God doesn’t make mistakes,” Vance said during the debate. “This amendment is in no way impacting their life choices or how they view themselves, and I hope that they see themselves as perfect.”
The amendment is expected to cut a little more than $300,000 for gender dysphoria care that’s funded through the state’s Department of Health. As introduced, the cut was not limited to surgery or hormonal therapy but would also extend to services such as mental health counseling. Counseling was eventually exempted from the prohibition through an amendment by Anchorage Republican Rep. Chuck Kopp, who is part of the House majority coalition.
“Gender dysphoria is a very real thing,” he said. “We don’t want to preclude a person under 18 from having psychological help, clinical social worker services, family therapy services, professional counseling services.”
While much of the debate and larger conservative backlash to trans care has been couched in concern for the long-term impacts on minors, the amendment doesn’t just block funding for minors, but it blocks state funding of trans care for all Alaskans.
Vance and other Republicans argued that public funds shouldn’t pay for others’ choices (a particularly rich point coming from a crowd that has also pushed for vastly increasing home-school allotment funding in the name of school choice).
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Andrew Gray, who is gay, gave an impassioned defense of trans Alaskans, arguing that a tiny group of people is being unfairly targeted and singled out in the budget bill. He said such acrimony can have particularly disastrous effects on young people, noting that he faced similar backlash as a young person.
“What other groups of people are being talked about in the operating budget?” he said, adding, “I know what it was like to be a 16-year-old whose mother told you that you were wrong, that you were a mistake. And what was her research? Where did she find that? She used the Bible as her reference to tell me that I was a mistake and that I was wrong. … I cannot stand here and say that we are going to tell one of the most marginalized, powerless minorities in our country, in our state, in our city, that they are wrong and they are a mistake.”
He also noted that the Alaska State Medical Board, which made headlines for trying to block gender-affirming care for minors, is headed by a podiatrist with no experience in trans care.
“I’ll state with no disparagement towards podiatrists that folks who operate on feet are probably not the best people to be giving expert opinions on this issue,” Gray said.
Despite his appeal, Republicans unanimously voted to support the measure, passing it with a 21-19 vote. Rep. Kopp and Kodiak Republican Rep. Louise Stutes broke with the rest of the coalition majority, which voted against the measure.
The budget debate and amendments are still underway and will continue in the House on Tuesday.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
