In visit to Jefferson City, Missouri Jewish leaders advocate for trans rights

JACKIE HAJDENBERG

JTA

“Hi, my name is Dan. I’m 11 years old and I like doing magic and circus skills, especially unicycling. I’m here today to testify against House Bill 170, 183, and 337,” a young voice said into the microphone.

“I really like to play sports with my friends, although honestly I’m not very good at it,” he added. “I’d really like the chance to play.”

Dan — a transgender boy whose parents asked that his last name not be used — was the youngest person to testify at the Missouri State House last week in opposition to eight bills heard in the chamber that would restrict trans children from participating in sports that align with their gender identity and limit their access to specialized medical care.

He was also part of a delegation of Missouri’s Jewish community members, alongside a few Christian clergy, that has been consistently appearing at the state Capitol to advocate for trans rights in response to a slew of bills that activists say violate their religious freedoms and cause significant harm to the LGBTQ community.

Daniel Bogard, a rabbi at Central Reform Congregation and the parent of a trans child, was at the State House Jan. 24 and again on Feb. 1 to support those testifying against the bills and to lobby lawmakers against them. He is a frequent visitor to Jefferson City as a trans rights activist, saying the possibility of restrictions on medical care are what scare him the most.

One piece of legislation would bar physicians and health care professionals from providing gender affirmation procedures to anyone under 18. Another would deny access to medications that are administered to delay the onset of puberty.

“Those are the bills that criminalize treating your child as every medical and psychological mainstream organization recommends,” said Bogard. “And that means parents are left with a choice of not giving these kids the sorts of treatment and care that are best practice according to everything that we know, or fleeing the state, or staying and risking some sort of criminal charge. The one that terrifies me is the idea of DSS [Department of Social Services] agents showing up to my door to take my kid away.”

Bogard, who has been going to the state Capitol for five years now, says the experience of being back at the State Legislature has been simultaneously “awful and affirming.”

“What’s remarkable is you go in and two-thirds of the people who are sponsoring these bills or testifying in favor of these bills are using overtly Christian theological language when they’re talking about the why,” he explained. “And then you look around and the people who are showing up to protect trans kids are Jews.”

The founder of the statewide LGBTQ advocacy group PROMO, which is not itself a Jewish group, is Rabbi Susan Talve, one of the founding members of Bogard’s synagogue, Central Reform Congregation. Shira Berkowitz, a Jewish summer camp friend of Bogard’s, is the senior director of public policy and advocacy at the organization, and last year, Bogard and Berkowitz launched a summer camp for trans kids.

“I’m just so proud of our Jewish community, the way we have shown up around this issue here in Missouri,” Bogard said.

The principal of Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School, Raquel ScharfAnderson, made the two-hour drive early on Jan. 24 to testify on behalf of her students.

“I make all of my decisions in the best interest of children,” Scharf-Anderson said. “Anything that would impact the students in my school, I want them to see me standing with them.”

The sports bills in particular, she said, would impact trans students at private schools, like Mirowitz.

Over the course of the Jan. 24 hearing, supporters of the bills said they were acting in the best interests of children. “We want to protect kids from unnecessary and harmful surgeries and medications,” said Brad Hudson, a Republican representative and one of the sponsors of the bill. “I say harmful because giving kids puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and even transgender surgery violates the first duty of medicine, do no harm.” (The Transgender Center at St. Louis

Children’s Hospital and other providers say puberty blockers are generally considered safe to use.

The American Medical Association has said that gender-affirming care is “medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people.”)

Supporters of the legislation also cited their Christian faith. Rachel Aguirre, a special education teacher who ran unsuccessfully for State Senate in the Republican primary in 2022, argued that the government was “founded upon the word of God,” and therefore athletes should only play on teams whose gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Nancy Delcour, another witness tesSee CAPITOL on page 24