League of Women Voters event highlights threats to gender‑affirming care and military discharges
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Summary
At a League of Women Voters of Colorado virtual program, presenter Jenna Jaeger outlined how policy changes and provider closures are reducing access to gender‑affirming care; retired colonel Sherry Swalkowski described recent military discharges and ongoing litigation affecting transgender service members.
Jenna Jaeger, a League member and retired BLM Forest Service natural‑resource scientist, told a League of Women Voters of Colorado audience that gender‑affirming care is a broad set of medical, behavioral and social services tied to bodily autonomy and should be decided between patients and providers, not politicians. “Gender affirming care really is for all people in all bodies,” Jaeger said, framing the care as routine for many and lifesaving for others.
Jaeger highlighted several access barriers: geographic disparities, clinic closures and documentation problems that can prevent people from obtaining consistent care. She warned that federal and state policy changes and hostile public rhetoric have worsened mental‑health outcomes for transgender people, saying recent actions have produced “huge mental health issues” and contributed to higher rates of suicide‑related harms.
Retired colonel Sherry Swalkowski addressed military policy and litigation. Speaking from Madison, Wisconsin, Swalkowski summarized an executive order she said narrowed federal recognition of gender and led the Department of Defense to process discharges beginning last June. “They started processing discharges for folks last June,” Swalkowski said, and she estimated the policy affects roughly 5,000 transgender service members. She described two parallel legal challenges in the Ninth Circuit and the D.C. courts and said merits hearings are pending; she warned that many service members may be discharged before courts reach final merits decisions.
Both speakers referenced legal questions facing state and federal protections. Jaeger referenced Colorado litigation around conversion‑therapy bans and cautioned that national court decisions could create uncertainty for state policies and for people’s ability to change identity documents. Amanda Keller, of the Campaign for Southern Equality, who spoke later in the program, described organizational work to help families navigate care disruptions (see separate article on the Trans Youth Emergency Project).
The program included audience questions about the Colorado case Childs v. Salazar, the role of clinicians and licensure in discouraging conversion therapy, and how communities respond when courts or rule changes threaten local protections. Jaeger and Swalkowski emphasized that Colorado maintains statutory and advocacy protections while litigation and administrative actions play out.
The session ended with speakers urging continued community support and civic engagement; the moderator closed the program and thanked attendees.
