Then They Came For Me...But I Wasn't A Packers Fan, So I Was OK

Tennessee's Attorney General prepares for the day when the Volunteer State can force transgender people into internment camps (or worse)

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

• Martin Niemöller

The news that red states have been going after transgender people- particularly children- isn’t exactly breaking news. Variations on this theme have occurred for years, though it’s picked up steam over the past few years. It’s as if Republicans have determined that gratuitous cruelty toward those who pose no threat whatsoever makes for sound policy.

When cruelty IS the point, you’re probably talking about Republican policy across the board. Having no thoughtful or impactful ideas, the GOP has defaulted to culture war issues, where they know they can stoke passions, create anger, and focus attention where they need and want it to be.

Transgender children, of course, lack a powerful and impactful voice to speak for them. Because they’re children, they can’t vote. Their parents may stand up for them because they love them as parents do, but there’s no well-funded lobby with powerful political voices and allies putting their political capital on the line. Republicans are coming for transgender children, and few are speaking out because few are transgender and few know anyone who’s transgender.

First, they came for the transgender children, and I didn’t speak up because…well, because you know how that goes….

(Chet Strange/Associated Press)

What’s been happening in Tennessee lately can only be described as a witch hunt. And if you object to that descriptor, I defy you to find one more apropos. There’s no sound legal, moral, or ethical reason to describe what’s happening in the Volunteer State as anything OTHER than a witch hunt, with the state Attorney General in the center of an effort to identify transgender Tennesseeans.

The exact purpose of the data collection is challenging to ascertain. But there’s no discernible positive purpose behind the state’s effort to obtain personal and private medical records of transgender individuals.

NASHVILLE — Two weeks ago, while the rest of America was absorbed by the hunt for a doomed submersible, people in Tennessee discovered that their attorney general was conducting a witch hunt.

As part of a “run of the mill” inquiry into possible billing fraud — as officials described their investigation — the attorney general’s office demanded that Vanderbilt University Medical Center hand over a vast array of documents from its clinic for gender-affirming care. According to Tennessee Lookout, a nonprofit journalism site, those documents include:

• complete medical records for an undisclosed number of patients

• résumés of clinic physicians

• information about the clinic’s Trans Buddy volunteers

• emails sent to and from a public portal for questions about L.G.B.T.Q. health

• the names of people referred to the gender-affirming clinic for care

There’s nothing “run of the mill” about this inquiry, especially since VUMC didn’t notify patients and families that the state of Tennessee had demanded access to their private, personal medical records. Nor did they make it clear what documents had been turned over.

VUMC’s argument that it had “no choice” is weak to the point of being laughable.

The fact that the records requests included information about Trans Buddy volunteers, questions emailed about LGBTQ health, and the names of people referred for gender-affirming care is distressing. For the AG’s office to claim that it was a “run of the mill” inquiry into possible billing fraud is a transparent falsehood. Anyone looking at the situation can immediately understand what’s at stake here.

The AG is casting a wide net in his search for potential victims.

Tell me this isn’t a witch hunt. Tell me this isn’t an open campaign of terror against already vulnerable citizens who had every reason to believe that their medical records — their medical records! — were confidential and every reason to believe that the medical clinic of a major university hospital was a safe space.

During the Juneteenth holiday weekend, Vanderbilt notified patients whose confidential medical records were now in the possession of the state attorney general. The hospital has not detailed which documents it provided the state. When two Tennessee Lookout reporters, Sam Stockard and Anita Wadhwani, asked whether Vanderbilt had complied with every state request in connection with the investigation, a hospital spokesman said, “The short response to your question is no.”

State officials contend that they are investigating only the hospital and certain providers, not the patients they serve, and that all the data they’ve gathered will be kept private. But given the sweeping nature of the documents and the obsessive and relentless way that the Republican supermajority in this state — and in virtually every state governed by a Republican supermajority — has persecuted trans people, it’s impossible to trust such claims.

If it looks like a witch hunt and smells like a witch hunt….

It would be an understatement to say that it’s “impossible to trust” state officials' claims. If the request for documents had been targeted and narrow, it would be easier to believe that the AG’s office was legitimately engaged in a “run of the mill” billing fraud inquiry. But that’s not what appears to be happening.

The documents requested from VUMC don’t reflect a narrowly-focused “run of the mill” billing fraud inquiry. If you’re anticipating conducting a witch hunt, you want as much information as possible to trap as many victims as possible in your dragnet. So getting the names of Trans Buddy volunteers, those who emailed questions, and those referred for gender-affirming care provides the most comprehensive array of potential targets.

There’s little doubt that this is a witch hunt, though to what end and what methods remain to be seen.

“There’s nothing hysterical about worrying about what might be done with this data in a state like Tennessee,” Chris Sanders, the executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, told Tennessee Lookout.

This investigation is clearly part of an intimidation campaign. Powerless to stop it, statehouse Democrats can only call it out. “Nowhere among the dozens of statutes in the Tennessee Code is there an authorization for the attorney general to use taxpayer resources and his office to promote his own political agenda or that of his political party,” said John Ray Clemmons, the Democratic Caucus chair of the Tennessee House.

I don’t know that it’s possible to overreact to what’s happening in Tennessee. The state AG is requesting information on those receiving gender-affirming care, have been referred for it, have inquired about it, and have assisted those receiving it. That information in the hands of a ruthless Republican government raises disturbing questions. The potential for persecution and oppression appears distressingly high under the best of circumstances.

Even though there’s no “authorization for the attorney general to use taxpayer resources and his office to promote his own political agenda or that of his political party,” that won’t stop Republicans from doing precisely that.

For those who don’t believe history is circular, one need not look only 90 years into the past to understand what became of Europe’s LGBTQ community. No, I’m not going to predict that Tennessee and/or other red states will head down the Final Solution path. But neither am I about to ignore historical reality and rule out that possibility.

I’m fully cognizant that some Americans would love to exterminate the Jewish AND LGBTQ communities. I won’t address that sick, virulent hatred today, but we cannot ignore its existence.

WILL the behavior of Tennessee’s AG lead to the extermination of the Volunteer State’s transgender individuals and those who love and support them? That’s a leap I’m not prepared to make just yet, but the actions of the AG’s office do raise some legitimate and disturbing questions.

Where is this heading?

What possible reason could the AG have for demanding records from VUMC? What legitimate purpose is being served by invading the privacy of those “guilty” only of seeking, inquiring about, being referred for, or supporting those receiving gender-affirming care?

Red state legislators are increasingly marching in lock-step with American Taliban activists like Matt Walsh, who staged an anti-trans rights rally in Nashville last year. The rights of human beings to exist and live as their authentic selves shouldn’t be subject to popular opinion. Yet here we are, with trans rights in red states subject to the hatred and bigotry projected by people like Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and other homophobic troglodytes.

Each of them spends WAY too much energy and brain power focused on how others live. The way transgender people live has no material impact on anyone but themselves, leaving me wondering what they fear. How does the gender identity of another person impact their life in ANY way? Why do they feel they have the right to determine how others may live?

Their personal moral framework should have no standing or influence upon anyone but themselves.

Both trans activists and private trans people who simply want to live their lives in peace are weighing how much risk they are willing to live with in this state that clearly cannot protect them. One prominent trans activist, Roberto Che Espinoza, has already moved away. “I don’t feel safe leaving the house,” Dr. Espinoza told WPLN’s Marianna Baccallao. “It’s not a way to live.”

Increasingly, this is exactly what it’s like to live in a red state, and not just for vulnerable minorities. The age at which it is possible to marry, the testing required to drive a car, the conditions under which it is possible to carry a firearm — such matters have always varied a bit from state to state. But this is a whole new reality.

Now that Republican-appointed justices dominate the U.S. Supreme Court, we can’t count on the courts to protect us from the most extreme agendas being enacted in Republican-dominated statehouses. Essential civil liberties that citizens of other states can take for granted are no longer liberties that we in the red states enjoy.

Remember when the GOP was the “party of small government?” They were the party wanting to get government off the back of the little guy. Ronald Reagan once said that “government does best that governs least.” Today’s GOP has flipped that script. Now it’s, “You’ll live how we tell you, and you’ll like it.”

Red state legislatures now see no issue with inserting their version of Conservative Christian morality into virtually all aspects of life. They now control health care, education, marriage, and other concerns that Republicans used to feel were best left to the individual. To their way of thinking, government should be small enough to insert into a woman’s vagina…or any consenting couple’s bedroom.

Doctors are too often limited in the decisions they may make. Teachers are allowed to teach only a limited and sanitized curriculum. Gun laws favor those who’d walk into schools or other public areas with murderous intent. Crazy, ignorant MAGA activists control school boards. Women lack agency when it comes to their reproductive functions.

We live in two countries now: one in which basic civil and human rights are recognized and enshrined in law and another in which ideological extremists can decide how everyone else lives.

Indeed. Never has this been more evident and true than it is today. Right-wing ideological extremists get off on controlling the lives and decisions of others. (If they can’t get laid, NOBODY gets laid.)

I’m grateful to live in Oregon, a reliably blue state where the government trusts the individual knows best when consulting with their doctor and their children’s teachers. Best of all, MAGA activists are few and far between- at least in the major urban areas. East of the Cascades, it may as well be West Idaho…but that’s another story best left for another time.

OK, our gun laws are seriously f****d, but I’ll take Oregon over Tennessee, Texas, or Floriduh any day. At least we don’t have self-righteous, busybody Republicans telling our doctors how they must make healthcare decisions.

And thankfully, transgender people and the rest of the LGBTQ community can count on being treated respectfully…at least west of the Cascades.

This is AmeriKKKa in 2023. So much for the progress we thought we’d see by now.