ATLANTA – Legislation denying gender-affirming care to inmates in Georgia’s prison system gained final passage in the Republican-controlled General Assembly Wednesday after state House Democrats walked out of the chamber in protest.
Senate Bill 185, which the Senate’s GOP majority passed last month mostly along party lines, passed the House 100-2 and now heads to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature. The only two “no” votes came from Democrats Regina Lewis-Ward of McDonough and David Sampson of Albany, who remained inside the House chamber after their Democratic colleagues walked out as a group.
The bill prohibits using state tax dollars to pay for gender-affirming care for state inmates, including sex-change surgery and hormone-replacement therapies.
Before Wednesday’s walkout, Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, who presented the bill on the House floor, said his constituents do not support taxpayer-funded gender-affirming care for Georgians who are behind bars in the state’s custody, which essentially would offer better health care to inmates than “law-abiding citizens” receive.
But Rep. Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, accused Republicans of wasting time pushing the bill when only five state inmates have asked for such health care. The time spent debating such a narrow measure on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session ignores more pressing needs of concern to all Georgians, including education, health care, and public safety, she said.
“Our constituents sent us here to address serious pressing issues affecting their daily lives,” Miller said. “Yet, instead of addressing real problems, my colleagues in the majority party continue their extreme agenda.”
After the Democrats walked out of the chamber, Republicans criticized the protest as irresponsible.
“For the Democratic Party in the Georgia House to walk out of the House chamber instead of fighting for fiscal responsibility with (Georgians’ tax dollars) is an abomination,” said Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown.
“Elections have consequences,” added House Majority Whip James Burchett, R-Waycross. “Our folks in the state of Georgia have said this issue is important. Taxpayers do not want to pay for elective surgeries.”
Republicans also argued the bill provides exceptions to allow the state Department of Corrections to pay for “medically necessary” treatments, including for those inmates born with chromosomal abnormalities resulting in ambiguity regarding their biological sex.
Miller countered that the legislation represents an attack on Georgia’s tiny transgender community.
“Stop picking on people,” she urged her House colleagues. “Let transgender people live.”