Read RMEQ's Advocacy and Education Manager Ash Neufeldt testimonial response to the failed HB 25-1068, a bill that would have scared doctors out of providing critical gender-affirming care.
Thank you to Ash for helping ensure this bill was stopped. Read the full testimony:
"Hello Chair Brown and members of the committee, my name is Aislin Neufeldt, and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am the Advocacy and Education Manager for Rocky Mountain Equality, an organization focused on creating a more inclusive world for LGBTQ+ people and their families.
I am testifying in strong opposition to HB 25-1068. This bill will hurt trans youth, it will hamstring health professionals from providing best practice healthcare to Coloradans, and it will set a precedent that any coloradan can be discriminated against in healthcare if the elected officials that be legislate it so.
The American Medical Association says “it is imperative that transgender minors be given the opportunity to explore their gender identity under the safe and supportive care of a physician,” but this bill will disincentivize physicians from doing so. This bill isn’t about changing law to allow malpractice insurers more ability to decline or shift coverage for providers more generally, it is about allowing insurers to do so only for providers providing medically necessary care for trans youth.
This bill, in its sole focus on healthcare for trans youth, is discriminatory. Discriminatory policies intended to target one population are attractive to those who think exclusion of some will make their own lives better. That is not the case. Policies akin to this house bill open the door to further discrimination for any and all people. To put it tersely, if this bill aimed at a particular population is passed, what is to say another one cannot be passed targeting another group. Inclusive policies focused on the well-being of everyone, however, cannot be reappropriated to be discriminatory to anyone. Ever.
I want every last person in this room, and in Colorado, to receive the best and most appropriate care available to them, because we need it– this includes healthcare for trans youth too. The only way we can ensure that we each get what we need, is if we let medical experts do their jobs, unfettered by the insecurity befallen them if this bill passes. I strongly urge a no vote on this bill, because We all deserve the highest quality of care, that we all receive that which we deserve."
Aislin (Ash) Neufeldt
She/her/hers
Advocacy and Education Manager
Rocky Mountain Equality (RMEQ)