‘A death sentence’: What changes to US healthcare could mean to the trans community

Charlie Baker’s childhood memories read like those of any other boy: aspiring to an Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque physique, pretending to shave his face, flexing barely-there muscles in front of a mirror.

Except Charlie was not assigned as a boy at birth.This was something he knew was a mistake around the time he first wished giant biceps would appear in his pre-kindergarten reflection.

Below: Charlie Baker pretends to shave as a child

‘I wanted to transition when I was very, very young, but it took me until the age of 25 to put the label of “trans” upon myself,’ he says.

‘So much of that was the idea that this life was going to be so hard.’

Charlie made the leap with his first testosterone shot in August 2016 and found the lows he foresaw superseded by the highs of living the life he always imagined. That is, until President Donald Trump’s January 2017 inauguration.

Whether by stripping students’ ability to choose the bathroom that matches their gender identity or suggesting religious entities can deny their employees contraception, the White House has repeatedly made it clear to the estimated 1.4 million in the US trans community that their rights are on the chopping block.

Kris Hayashi, the executive director of the Transgender Law Center, said: ‘Ever since the inauguration, ever since the election, we have been in this moment of attack, after attack, after attack on our community from this administration.’

Healthcare: the latest hit

And yet it was the House of Representatives who most recently chipped away at trans rights, passing the Republican response to Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, just over a week ago.

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