Trans Resistance Action Committee demands that Dane County drop anti-trans health care provider
Madison, WI – On Saturday, September 23, activists and allies from the Trans Resistance Action Committee (TRAC) demonstrated outside the Capitol building in Madison to demand that Dane County drop the Dean Health insurance plan.
Dean Health is an affiliate of SSM Health, a Catholic, not-for-profit health system. SSM Health stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries at its Aesthetics Center in Middleton, Wisconsin in July. This came after increasing pressure from the Catholic Church for Catholic health care organizations to stop providing gender-affirming care to transgender people. This move is part of a continued increase in anti-trans legislation, rhetoric and policy across the United States.
Logan Bitz, a founding member of TRAC and co-organizer of the rally, said, “I’m trans and I had gender-affirming surgery at the Aesthetics Center before they discontinued treatments. The obscene medical hurdles I’ve faced have always left me irate for everyone else who needs access to this kind of care. It’s always been my hope that things will only continue to get easier for others than it was for me, but the SSM decision is a perfect example that that’s not where things are heading.”
The chants, speeches and signs of TRAC activists got the attention of hundreds of people who were walking around Capitol square for the weekly Dane County Farmers Market.
TRAC is a grassroots organization that was founded to advocate for trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people’s rights in the Madison area. Cae Dallman, an organizer with and founder of TRAC, spoke about the demand for Dane County to drop SSM: “This summer, Dane County became a transgender sanctuary. Dumping SSM Health as a result of their bigoted decision to stop providing gender-affirming care would demonstrate that this resolution wasn’t just words on paper.”