TransPreacher

Today 46 people showed up and 13 people testified at the Ohio Department of Health against proposed rules limiting transgender healthcare. No one spoke against. Here is my testimony. Trans rights are human rights; transgender healthcare is healthcare.

My name is Joelle Henneman, my pronouns are she/her, I am a transgender woman, and the senior pastor of the United Methodist Church for All People.

Last week I received my quarterly gender care from my doctor, which is always a life-giving experience. For the first time in my life, I like who I am as a human being.

Because of the healthcare I receive, I have recently been able to go off of antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. Since puberty, I lived in a continual cycle of suicide ideation that was a part of my daily life, now, for the first time in my life, I am glad to be alive because of the healthcare I receive.

Proposed rules with onerous reporting requirements will make the care I receive more difficult to access. More importantly, proposed rules for transgender youth will make care nearly impossible to receive. These proposed rules will result in increased rates of depression and suicidality amongst some of the most vulnerable people amongst us.

As a faith leader, and transgender person, I ask that you rescind these rules completely.

These rules deny the sacred value and divine worth of transgender people.

 These rules violate the basic medical principle of doing no harm. 

  These rules deny the humanity of people like me.

Rescind these rules