1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I'm writing you about the imminent government shutdown to implore you not to give in to Republican demands ban all federal funds from being used to fund gender affirming care. Doing this would essentially be a death sentence for many transgender people, and would make paying for vital medical care difficult for many others. Furthermore, if you give ground on this now, they will just keep pushing to further marginalize us -- in the same way that they've used trans sports bans to get their foot in the door to get to this point. With everything going on, giving any ground to Republicans would just tell them that you can be cowed, and that you're willing to throw vulnerable people to the wolves in order to get crumbs in return -- and maybe not even that, since the administration seems happy to simply not fund anything they don't want even if Congress does agree to something. There is simply no point to save them from themselves -- we need you to draw a line. If you throw trans people to them this time, the next time it will just be someone else -- we have already seen them do this. Don't fall for this again -- please don't let trans people be a sacrificial lamb.