This Just in from the Ocean State
Healthcare Provider Shield Act
In March, the RI Senate Judiciary held a hearing regarding the Healthcare Provider Shield Act, which would create a legal protection for professionals seeking access to reproductive health care services provided in Rhode Island for their transgender patients.
In recent years, there has been a rash of bans blocking access to the medical care for transgender young people. This legislation is supported by a host of pediatric professional organizations and is considered “established best-practice medical care” and “legal standard-of-care medicine.”
The hearing ended with a statement from Senator Dawn Euer (Democrat, District 13, Newport, Jamestown), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and sponsored the Healthcare Provider Shield Law. “I want to say a word to the trans community, especially any trans kids who are listening tonight: Not everybody shares the opinion [about] the disinformation that was shared tonight. You are beautiful, you are important, and we need you.”
Protecting librarians
In March, Providence Rep. David Morales introduced a bill, H7575, to protect librarians from charges of circulating “obscene publications.” Testifying before the state’s House Judiciary Committee, Assistant Director at the Memorial and Library Association of Westerly Bill Lancellotta spoke of libraries in Rhode Island and across the nation facing an unprecedented wave of attempts to censor library materials and criminalize the practices of librarianship. Often these attempts are made through the state’s existing obscenity laws, and the books are often written by or about a person of color or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Harrassment at Mega-Plex
Providence’s LGBTQ+ club Mega-Plex is seeking a court order barring the police department from trespassing, harassment and over-policing on the property, singling out customers based on sexual orientation, an action that business owners contend is causing patrons to avoid the club.
The club accuses Providence officers of routinely driving through the area and parking lots while flashing their lights and shining spotlights on people on the property, and even pulling over patrons after leaving the Mega-Plex, and searching them for no reason other than the fact that they had just exited the club.
On Feb. 13, lawyer Joseph P. Carnevale IV alerted the City Solicitor’s Office of their intent to file for a restraining order, after which the PD’s activity at the property stopped for a short time. On March 4, officers are said to have resumed their over-policing and trespassing on the property and harassing the business and its patrons.
The previous business located at this property, Lola’s Rendezvous, was also a gay club, and received the same treatment form the Providence Police, eventually forcing the business to close.
IVF coverage denied
At present, when a Rhode Island LGBT couple opts to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments to assist with pregnancy, they are met with a major roadblock, based on an outdated technicality. While Rhode Island is one of a handful of states that require private insurance companies to cover fertility treatments, which can include IVF, in order to be approved for IVF, couples must meet a requirement, based on an old statute, that they are not able to conceive or sustain a pregnancy after a year of “unprotected intercourse.”
This year, State Rep. Karen Alzate and State Sen. Sandra Cano, both Pawtucket Democrats, have tried to pass legislation to include same-sex couples in statutes related to fertility rights. This would make the state conform to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, whose definition of infertility was changed to include LGBT couples last October.
While it would not provide coverage for IVF entirely, it would make it a little less expensive. (This testing is already covered for straight couples who get pregnant and want to check on the health of child.)
As we go to press, Alzate’s bill is currently under consideration in the House Health and Human Services Committee.
Foster-Gloucester trans policy
In July, Nicole Solas, an outspoken anti-trans activist, challenged the Foster-Gloucester School Committee to push back against the Rhode Island Department of Education’s mandated policy supporting transgender, gender-diverse and transitioning students, despite the probability that the outcome would mean loss of state funds for the school as well as a likely expensive lawsuit.
Solas has been trying to find a school committee in the state willing to go to court against RIDE’s policy, but has so far met with little success. Regulations regarding the transgender policy, according to the RI Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, has the force and effect of law, providing that each school district must adopt RIDE’s policy.
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