by Renee McGuinness

Two bills sponsored by Vermont Democrat and Progressive legislators continue to push the Transgender Ideology Agenda at the potential expense of Vermont taxpayers and female prison inmates. H.576 intends to establish an “Affirming Health Care Trust Fund,” while H.550 intends to allow transgender incarcerated persons to choose their prison and their cellmate based upon their gender identity.

H.576 “Affirming Health Care Trust Fund”

Three representatives have affirmed themselves as masters in their world of delusion as they seek to establish a state trust fund to pay expenses for so-called gender-affirming care services in our already financially over-burdened state.

Representatives Berbeco of Winooski, Bluemle of Burlington, and Headrick of Burlington are co-sponsors of H.576, a bill that, “proposes to establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, to be administered by the State Treasurer, to provide monetary awards to cover costs associated with receiving and providing gender-affirming health care services.”

Monies from the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund would be distributed to gender-affirming care providers; nonprofit organizations that facilitate access to gender affirming care services; care that is otherwise not compensated; support needs of individuals seeking care; “reducing disparities in access to gender-affirming health care services by geography, income, race, disability, age, and other factors;” capital costs for establishing and operating clinics; and medical malpractice and general liability insurance.

As written, H.576 would make the Trust vulnerable to fraud and present a conflict of interest between the State Treasurer and non-profits.

H.576 states, “The monetary award process shall not require the collection or retention of any patient-identifiable data.” How would a provider apply for monies from a state trust fund for which patient-identifiable information is not required? What questions would be on the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund monies’ request form? How would Treasurer Pieciak know that a patient for which a provider is attempting to collect funds is a legitimate patient?

Would Pieciak, like Mary in the It’s a Wonderful Life bank run scene, simply thrust out a hand full of rubber band-bound taxpayer dollars to providers and non-profits and enthusiastically ask, “how much do you need?!”

In addition, Treasurer Pieciak serves on the Board Finance Committee of Outright Vermont, a transgender youth advocacy non-profit, which has been the recipient of taxpayer funds through the Agency of Education as far back as 1998 under former Governor Howard Dean, according to Wikipedia. Outright Vermont received $60,000 from the Vermont Agency of Education in 2024 and requested $500,000 from the state for its 2025 budget.

There is a blatant conflict of interest when the State Treasurer, an advocate and promoter of transgender youth, would be in charge of both dispensing funds under S.576 and receiving funds for Outright Vermont.

Please provide input on H.576 to the sponsors:

Representative Daisy Berbeco, Chittenden-21: dberbeco@leg.state.vt.us

Representative Tiffany Bluemle, Chittenden-13:  tbluemle@leg.state.vt.us

Representative Troy Headrick, Chittenden-15: theadrick@leg.state.vt.us

Transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals select their incarceration facility and cellmate under H.550

Representatives Headrick of Burlington, Bluemle of Burlington, Casey of Montpelier, Greer of Bennington, Howard of Rutland City, McCann of Montpelier, McGill of Bridport, and Minier of South Burlington, are sponsors of H.550, which proposes to, “create intake, classification, and housing assignment standards for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons who are housed within the Department of Corrections.”

The bill asserts, “It is the intent of the General Assembly to recognize that gender transition is a deeply personal experience that may involve some combination of social transition, legal transition, medical transition, or none of these (emphasis mine). Some transgender, nonbinary, or intersex persons experience gender dysphoria that requires medical treatment, while others do not experience gender dysphoria.”

H.550 requires that transgender, nonbinary, and intersex inmates are: addressed according to their gender identity (a potential violation of First Amendment rights by compelling a person’s speech); are searched according to the search policy for the inmate’s gender identity; ”the inmate is housed at a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the inmate’s preference (emphasis mine),” and that, “the inmate’s perception of health and safety be given serious consideration in any bed assignment, placement or programming decision within the facility in which the inmate is housed, including granting single-cell status, housing the inmate with another inmate of choice, or removing the inmate or individual who pose a threat from any location where there is access to the inmate expressing a safety concern.”

H.550 further states, “The Department [of Corrections] shall not deny a search or housing placement based on any discriminatory reason including the following: (A) the anatomy, including the genitalia or other physical characteristics, of the inmate (I’m imagining a man that identifies as a woman asking for a cavity search of a cavity that does not exist); (B) the sexual orientation of the inmate; or (C) for a denial of a housing preference, a factor present among other inmates at the preferred correctional facility.”

In short, an intact male who identifies as a woman will choose his correctional facility according to the gender with which he identifies. And he gets to choose the cellmate with whom he will feel most safe and comfortable.

H.550 does not contain any provisions for the safety and comfort of biological females serving prison sentences: this bill violates the equal rights and protections of women by elevating a transgender-identifying person’s rights above the rights of biological women. If a female inmate has any concerns about sharing her cell with an intact male who identifies as a woman, well, she’s a transphobic bigot, amirite? Who cares about her safety and comfort?

Please be sure to provide your input to the Representatives who sponsored H.550:

Solutions regarding state education funding, academics, affordability, and public safety remain on the list of high priorities for most Vermonters in 2026. Legislators refuse to consider a system of school choice, while at the same time provide exclusive rights and privileges for transgender-identifying persons. The above-mentioned legislators persist in playing in their world of make-believe multiple genders and “marginalized groups” in the People’s House, forcing their gender ideology onto all Vermonters, at our expense, and to the detriment of children and real women.

Author is a Vermont Family Alliance Policy Analyst.