Maryland House passes scores of bills, including Trans Health Equity Act, during extended weekend session

Facing looming deadlines and with scores of legislation up in the air, Maryland delegates convened Saturday in Annapolis for a weekend bill-passing session.

The 141-member House met for several hours to cram through a slew of bills before Monday’s “crossover day.” That’s the last day bills can pass either the House or the Senate and get a hearing in the opposite chamber without going through extra procedural steps. The General Assembly session is scheduled to end in just over three weeks.

Both chambers began ramping up their schedules earlier in the week, meeting for hours each morning, breaking for committee hearings and votes in the afternoon, then returning to the floors for second floor sessions that sometimes dragged into the evening.

The House pushed through a packed calendar Saturday, passing a series of local bills and statewide policies running the gamut from alcohol regulation to energy and the environment.

Lawmakers erupted in applause after the passage of the Trans Health Equity Act, which stirred up controversy among House Republicans, on a 93-37 vote.

House Bill 283 would require Maryland Medicaid to cover gender-affirming care and procedures for transgender patients. Also, the Maryland Department of Health would be required to publish an annual report listing providers of gender-affirming care, including their names, locations and the services they provide.

The bill would go into effect Jan. 1.

Republicans delegates testifying against the bill got graphic during the debate. Harford County Del. Lauren Arikan rose to tell fellow lawmakers about the details of penis reattachment surgery for people who choose to “de-transition.”

House Health and Government Operations Vice Chair Bonnie Cullison, one of the bill’s sponsors, responded by saying that only 0.4% of transgender people who transition regret that action “versus 30% of most other surgeries” — including routine procedures, such as knee surgery. She did not offer a source for the information, but The Associated Press recently cited a 2021 review of 27 studies involving almost 8,000 teens and adults who had transgender surgeries, mostly in Europe, the U.S and Canada. It found that 1% on average expressed regret.

According to the bill’s fiscal note, 98 people received gender-affirming care through Medicaid in 2022. The state health department estimated the number of patients seeking gender-affirming care through Medicaid would increase by about 25 people each year if the bill is passed.

“We’re not really deciding very much here. We’re not deciding whether or not people should have these procedures — that’s something that’s going to be decided between the patient and the medical professional,” said House Majority Leader Marc Korman, a Montgomery County Democrat. “You may not like those medical procedures for your own personal reasons — I may have a problem with open heart surgery — but these are medical procedures.”

Del. Mark Fisher, a Calvert County Republican, compared procedures that would be covered under the bill to female genital mutilation, which he told fellow lawmakers has been recognized as a human rights violation by the United Nations. Fisher said that he believes “House Bill 283 seeks to engage in ... child mutilation.”

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“Now here we are, creating a brave new world. Wouldn’t Aldous Huxley be proud?” Fisher asked. “A dystopia, experimenting on children.”

Montgomery County Democratic Del. Gabriel Acevero, who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community, told Republicans that he hopes their concern for children will “extend to when we’re talking about charging kids as adults or lying to kids in order to coerce a confession.”

Del. Anne Kaiser, who co-sponsored the bill with fellow Montgomery County Democrat Cullison, told the delegates who opposed the bill that they should talk with transgender activists about their experience transitioning.

Kaiser, who is a lesbian, said her passion for the bill is connected to a lack of direct representation from the transgender community among Maryland lawmakers.

“People have asked me why I feel so passionately about this issue: I’m not trans, I don’t have gender dysphoria. Well, we don’t have representation in this House by anyone in the trans community, so me and my 59 co-sponsors, we are your voice — we are your representation,” Kaiser said. “What is being said nationally about trans people are the same lies that were said about gays and lesbians 20 years ago, and that’s part of the reason I feel the passion and a connection to our trans brothers and sisters — our neighbors, our community, our constituents in all of our districts.”

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The House ultimately spent a total of three hours passing bills Saturday. The Senate worked through a lengthy session Friday night, passing bills dealing with everything from more quickly raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 to increasing goals for the amount of wind energy generated in the future off Maryland’s coast.

The chambers will reconvene Monday to pass other bills before the midnight crossover deadline.