Vice President Kamala Harris has long supported the idea of taxpayers funding sex-change surgeries for transgender inmates, but a new document reveals the lengths she would go to ensure everyone in prison feels comfortable with their gender.
A newly released ACLU questionnaire from 2019 shows that Harris supported the idea of offering sex-change surgeries to illegal immigrants or migrants detained in federal custody.
Harris voted “yes” in response to a question about whether she would offer government-funded care for “transgender and nonbinary people,” including “those in prison and immigration detention centers.”
“It is important that transgender people who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, including access to treatment associated with gender transition,” Harris wrote, detailing her response.
“Transitional treatment is a medical necessity and I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential health care to provide transitional treatment,” he added.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on stage during a Pride celebration hosted by the Vice President of the United States.
Harris was not always a courageous advocate for prisoners receiving the gender care they needed.
As California attorney general, Harris joined prison leaders in filing a request in May 2015 with the Ninth Circuit court to block sex reassignment surgery for a biological male who was transitioning to a female.
She lost the case, after a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the state of California to provide the surgery.
Later in her career, Harris changed her stance, saying she helped transgender inmates get the care they needed.
US Vice President Kamala Harris hosts a panel discussion to mark LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the Vice President’s Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building
US Vice President Kamala Harris holds a panel discussion commemorating LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the Vice President’s Office
“When I found out what they were doing behind the scenes, I got them to change the policy,” Harris falsely claimed. reclaimed during an LGBT forum during the 2020 Democratic primaries.
‘I promise you that there will always be things that these agencies will do in these systems.’
Harris has since embraced many of the sensitivities of the transgender community, including gender issues.
She has publicly proclaimed her gender pronouns (she/her) during events where transgender people are present, becoming the first US vice president to do so.
Her campaign has also signaled its intention to include transgender people by giving applicants the option to select nine different genders.
Vice President Kamala Harris exits Air Force Two in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state, in southern Mexico.
Harris also went further than most Democrats in showing the ACLU that she was committed to cutting funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Our immigration detention system is out of control and I believe we must end the unjust incarceration of thousands of individuals, families and children,” Harris wrote in the questionnaire.
‘I was one of the first senators after President Trump was elected to advocate for a decrease in funding to ICE.’
Harris also expressed support for completely reinventing the federal immigration enforcement agency during her failed 2016 presidential campaign.
“I think there’s no question that we need to critically reexamine ICE and its role and the way it’s run and the work that it’s doing,” Harris told MSNBC host Kasie Hunt. “And we probably need to think about starting from scratch.”