CHARLOTTE, N.C. — WCNC Charlotte continues to fact-check political ads you see right here on TV and social media.
Today, we are looking at an ad we have gotten dozens of emails about. The ad claims Kamala Harris supports using taxpayer money to pay for gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people in prison.
“Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners," is part of the ad's central claim. It is paid for by Donald Trump's campaign.
THE CLAIM:
Kamala Harris supports taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for prison inmates in the United States.
THE ANSWER:
While it is true that Harris did once support transgender surgery in prisons in 2019 when she ran for president, right now her team says she is not running on this or proposing it.
SOURCES:
This claim stems from 2019, when Harris originally ran for president. At the time, she voiced her support for funding transition-related care including surgery for transgender prison inmates.
In 2019 she also filled out a candidate questionnaire from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). One of the questions asked if as president she would use executive authority to ensure transgender people who rely on the state for medical care including those in prison would have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care.
Harris answered yes.
In the U.S. there are more than 2,230 transgender people incarcerated in federal prisons and nearly 5,000 transgender people incarcerated in state prisons.
Today, Harris’ 2024 presidential platform does not mention gender transition surgeries for prisoners or transgender people at all. It does, however, say she will fight to pass the Equality Act to protect LGBTQIA+ Americans in health care, housing, education, and more into law as president.
In 2015, when Harris was serving as California attorney general, the state and the Transgender Law Center reached a landmark settlement to move a transgender inmate to a women’s correctional facility and provide her with transition-related care and surgery. The case led California to become the first state to set standards for transgender inmates to apply to receive state-funded gender transition surgery.
However, before the settlement, Harris defended the California Department of Corrections’ attempts to deny gender transition surgery to transgender prisoners. After facing criticism, Harris told LGBTQ+ news outlets in 2019 that she was obligated as the California attorney general to defend her clients’ positions even when they were opposite of her personal beliefs.
“I was, as you are rightly pointing out, the attorney general of California for two terms and I had a host of clients that I was obligated to defend and represent and I couldn’t fire my clients, and there are unfortunate situations that occurred where my clients took positions that were contrary to my beliefs,” Harris said in January 2019 during her first news conference after announcing her 2020 presidential run.
Harris added that she “worked behind the scenes to ensure that the [California] Department of Corrections would allow transitioning inmates to receive the medical attention that they required, they needed and deserved.”
Contact Meghan Bragg at mbragg@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.