2.12.2025
Healthcare is being attacked by people who do not care about the stochastic violence they are committing. The system is working the way it was built to work. I've worked as a physical therapist for eight years and the value placed on my expertise by the U.S. medical industrial complex has worn away, but it was never respected in the first place. In my first few months of work I was informed that Humana never approves inpatient rehabilitation, a tool of recovery that research shows is essential for those recovering after a CVA (stroke), traumatic brain injury, amputation, ... but the only data that matters is the salary of the C-suite and the earnings of essential stakeholders.
VCU, UVA and other care facilities that are currently denying care to children because they are being bullied by executive orders and A.G. Miyares are breaking federal and state laws - Title IX, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, and the Virginia Human Rights Act. In PFLAG vs Trump, a judge may decide to restrain the executive branch and use the system to decry their act of dehumanization unlawful. If that happens, I am curious how quickly VCU, UVA and other will return to providing best practice healthcare.
All of this enraging and oppression has been going on for centuries. Valerie Kaur argues for the importance of reimagining systems, of being creative with the planned obsolescence of broken systems. In See No Stranger, A Memoir and Manifest of Revolutionary Love, she quotes Angela Davis: "Slavery, lynching, and segregation are certainly compelling examples of social institutions that, like the prison, were once considered to be as everlasting as the sun [...] Yet, in the case of all three examples, we can point to movements that assumed the radical stance of announcing the obsolescence of these institutions."
I imagine a future where there are only elected officials who propose ways to increase access to healthcare, who elevate the importance of bodily autonomy, and who know that we are all human. I doubt I will live to see that time, and I will work to create the change I can.
Below is an opinion piece I wrote after I dug into several bills proposed to the Virginia legislature in the 2024 session. More on VA legislature in the future (follow VA Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, Birth in Color, Marijuana Justice, New Virginia Majority, Equality Virginia for timely updates).
2.5.2024
"Intersex is an umbrella term for differences in sex traits or reproductive anatomy. People are born with these differences or develop them at a young age. Genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy, or chromosomes can develop in many ways," (from https://interactadvocates.org).
interACT was founded in 2006 by attorney Anne Tamar-Mattis and seeks to provide legal advocacy for intersex children. "From the very beginning, interACT has recognized that with so much at stake for the individuals and families involved, we must consider not only medical outcomes, but also the civil and human rights of children born with intersex traits. As always, interACT remains committed to advancing this discussion with a sense of respect and compassion for the children, parents, doctors, and intersex adults involved," (1).
What medical outcomes? What is at stake? The bodily autonomy of children and the ability of parents to have agency when asked to make irrevocable choices pertaining to the well-being of their child.
SB 671. A bill that would criminalize an individuals' right to gender-affirming healthcare, titled the Youth Health Protection Act, (2). In it, Virginia Senator Mark J. Peake explicitly preserves the ability of surgeons to alter a child when their external genitalia do not fit with the settler-colonial binary of man and woman. The text highlights the fictional "disorder of sex development," a term created to keep the population in boxes built by white men. If passed, this bill would impact approximately 146,914 of Virginia's youth. That is more than the number of students served by City of Richmond Public Schools and the number of undergraduates at VUU, VCU, and University of Richmond combined, (3).
I did not know that legislators hid exemptions in bills seeking to destroy bodily autonomy and gender-affirming care until 10.29.2023. I learned from Bria Brown-King, Esther Leidolf, Liat Feller, and Jackey Baiza, participants on a panel sharing their experiences as intersex individuals. They asked that healthcare providers in the room (I am one) continue to learn more about the current state of healthcare in the United States for intersex individuals. One fact they shared is only one hospital in the U.S. will not perform non-consensual gender-reassignment surgeries. One hospital of thousands that will not perform non-consensual, medically unnecessary surgery on a child. I have written this piece as a healthcare provider who believes everyone has the right to bodily autonomy, who is learning to interact with my privilege, who wants to disrupt the U.S. medical industrial complex. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this.
Sincerely,
Michelle Hoekstra, PT, DPT (they|them|theirs)
(1) https://interactadvocates.org/about-us/mission-history/
(2) https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?241+sum+SB671
(3) Based on the estimate that 1.7% of the population are born with intersex traits.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/intersex-people
22,000 students in preschool through grade 12 in Richmond Public Schools; 20,958 undergraduates at Virginia Commonwealth University; 5,190 undergraduates at Virginia Union University; and 3,166 undergraduates at University of Richmond.
Additional resources:
Not Uncommon, Just Unheard Of, by Esther Morris Leidolf
Nobody Needs to Know: A Memoir, by Pidgeon Pagonis
Inverse Cowgirl: A Memoir, by Alicia Roth Weigel
XOXY: A Memoir, by Kimberly M. Zieselman
https://interactadvocates.org/intersex-memoirs-are-shaking-things-up/
Every Body, a documentary. "Three intersex individuals set aside medical advice to keep their
bodies a secret and instead come out as their authentic selves."
https://www.focusfeatures.com/every-body/watch/
Nov 17, 2024
4 min read