{"id":1704644,"date":"2022-10-20T17:18:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T21:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1704644"},"modified":"2022-10-20T17:19:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T21:19:02","slug":"tennessee-governor-officials-disavow-state-created-task-force-over-extreme-trans-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tennessee-governor-officials-disavow-state-created-task-force-over-extreme-trans-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Governor, Officials Disavow State-Created Task Force Over \u2018Extreme\u2019 Trans Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftennessee-governor-officials-disavow-state-created-task-force-over-extreme-trans-activism%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1704644&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Top <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/tennessee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tennessee<\/a> officials disavowed a state-created HIV task force that was designed to help <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/transgender\">transgender<\/a> individuals but has since expanded in scope to promote transgender surgeries and abortion.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a Daily Wire inquiry, Governor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/bill-lee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill Lee<\/a> (R-TN) and the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) said that the state does not support the Tennessee Transgender Task Force (TTF), a group created in 2018 prior to the Lee administration. But the task force has repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hivtn.net\/ttf\">aligned itself<\/a> with the state health department, even though state officials say it\u2019s now an independent group with no members employed by the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe State of Tennessee does not support the task force, nor its promotion of gender-affirming treatment, abortion and other extreme ideologies. These ideologies are not consistent with the values of Tennesseans, and we will continue efforts to ensure they are not promoted or funded by state government,\u201d Casey Sellers, a spokeswoman for Lee, told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>Information on the task force added during the Haslam administration was still <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/YEW33\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">available<\/a> on the TDH as recently as this month, and was only removed after The Daily Wire asked about it. <\/p>\n<p>A health department spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the task force and others have been misrepresenting their involvement by using their name and logo, and that the department doesn\u2019t oversee or provide funding for the task force.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe task force was formed prior to the Lee administration and remains an independent organization. To be clear, the department does not fund or promote gender-affirming treatments or ideologies,\u201d TDH spokesperson Dean Flener said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Middle Tennessee State University Professor Marisa Richmond, a former member of the task force and the first transgender person to become a Nashville city board member, told The Daily Wire in an email that the task force \u201cexpanded\u201d from focusing solely on HIV care and into a more general \u201caccess to health care for transgender Tennesseans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to materials reviewed by The Daily Wire, the task force and individuals linked to the health department continued to associate itself with TDH even after Haslam left office and as recently as 2022.<\/p>\n<p>For example, a November 2019 presentation given by then-TDH STD Prevention Director Leo Parker at an STD conference <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsddc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/112019-900a-PlazaBallroom-InnovationsHealthEquity.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">showed<\/a> how the task force had moved to other \u201ctrans health challenges.\u201d During his presentation, Parker discussed the \u201clack\u201d of gender identity and pronouns on state medical forms, the cost of hormone replacement treatment at pharmacies, gender markers on state IDs, \u201csex work,\u201d \u201cundocumented transgender individuals,\u201d \u201clack of transgender-inclusive sexual education,\u201d and \u201cgender-neutral language in reproductive spaces,\u201d according to PowerPoint slides with the TDH logo on them from the event.<\/p>\n<p>Resource guides put out by the task force have promoted transgender treatments, abortion, and other services not related to HIV care. A 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5b2bedd8f2e6b18c0de8d577\/t\/609588bb102ab66c40e86e2c\/1620412708277\/TTF+Resource+Guide+PDF+V+1.0.pdf\">iteration<\/a> of the resource guide included a list of over 30 clinics, doctors, and other entities across Tennessee that the group has apparently deemed to provide \u201ctrans-affirming\u201d services, including \u201cgeneral reproductive care,\u201d \u201cyouth services,\u201d \u201cletters for surgery,\u201d \u201csurgical care,\u201d \u201cfitness classes,\u201d abortion, land letters for \u201cgender marker change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The guide also lists doctors or professional organizations that provide \u201cyouth services,\u201d including Vanderbilt Pediatric and Adolescent Transgender Health Clinic \u2014 which paused gender surgeries earlier this month in response to Daily Wire reporting \u2014 and the Oasis Center in Nashville \u2014 which runs \u201cJust Us\u201d programs for youth and celebrates the \u201cfluidity of identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In April 2022, Ray Holloman, who has been chair of the task force, gave a presentation on \u201cQueer Cultural Humility,\u201d at the Tennessee Department of Health annual statewide HIV. The Daily Wire has reached out to Holloman for comment asking for clarity on the relationship between the task force and the state health department.<\/p>\n<p>The association between the task force and the TDH appeared to continue up until October 2022, as a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/us16.campaign-archive.com\/?u=d99a916515ccec2fc503221a1&#038;id=025ee337a0\">mailer<\/a> from the United Way of Greater Nashville, an HIV treatment group, with the TDH logo emblazoned on the top also encouraged people to contribute \u201ctrans-affirming\u201d health care providers to be vetted by the task force and added to the resource guide.<\/p>\n<p>The task force did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Tennessee officials disavowed a state-created HIV task force that was designed to help transgender individuals but has since expanded in scope to promote transgender surgeries and abortion. In response to a Daily Wire inquiry, Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) and the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) said that the state does not support the Tennessee &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1704647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1704644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1704644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1704647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}