OurTupelo

Sen. Joey Fillingane embellished a story.

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FEBRUARY 28, 1950

Mary Church Terrell invited friends to eat with her at Thompson’s restaurant in Washington, D.C. The manager turned them away, saying Thompson’s refused to serve Black patrons. 

Terrell, the 86-year-old founding member of the NAACP and the founding president of the National Association of Colored Women, stood up against the prejudice. Such discrimination had not always existed in the nation’s capital. In fact, Congress had passed laws in 1872 and 1873, barring restaurants and the like from refusing to serve any “well-behaved” customer, regardless of race. Those laws remained on the books, despite being ignored.

Several years later, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor, she returned with her friends to Thompson’s. “We went, and we had a glorious time,” she told the New York Age. “When I got to the end of the line, a gentleman walked up to me, took my tray and escorted me to a table and asked me, ‘Mrs. Terrell, is there anything else I can do for you?’ And who do you think that man was? Why, it was the manager of the Thompson restaurants!” 

Her battle led to the end of racial discrimination in restaurants in the nation’s capital, but her fight was far from done. On her 90^th birthday, she challenged the capital’s segregated theater policy. In weeks, “virtually all of Washington’s movie houses had opened their doors for everyone,” according to the biography of her life, Fight On!: Mary Church Terrell’s Battle for Integration.

She lived to see the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision on May 17, 1954, which ended racial segregation in public schools. She died just a few months later.

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House Speaker Philip Gunn on Monday said he won’t block extension of postpartum Medicaid coverage for Mississippi mothers, following fellow Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ lead from Sunday.

House Medicaid Committee Chairman Joey Hood said he will call a committee meeting for Tuesday, the deadline to keep postpartum extension legislation alive by committee passage. The measure is expected to pass.

A Mississippi Today survey of House lawmakers in early February showed a majority support extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to a year, but Gunn twice blocked the measure from coming to a House vote last year.

“For a year, we’ve been asking the department of Medicaid to give us some guidance,” Gunn said. “I have this letter today, where they have said it is a suitable approach for Mississippi. They support doing it and they do not view it as Medicaid expansion — it’s not adding new people onto the rolls. Those have been my two main concerns this whole time. I feel like we have been consistent.”

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves, after months of resistance, asks lawmakers to pass postpartum Medicaid extension

The Senate, led by fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, has several times passed a bill to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage. But the proposal has died in the House without a vote under Gunn’s direction. Gunn opposes Medicaid expansion and has said he was concerned the postpartum coverage extension would be considered such expansion.

Medicaid Director Drew Snyder had publicly declined taking a position on the issue, and Gunn and Hood said they have been unable to get guidance — hence their not taking it up in the House last year. But after Reeves, who oversees the Division of Medicaid, said on Sunday he supports postpartum coverage extension, Snyder sent Gunn a letter on Monday.

It said: “… adopting a one-year coverage duration for postpartum pregnant women as set out in Senate bill 2212 is a suitable approach for Mississippi. It also is consistent with the approach followed by similarly situated Medicaid programs in our region such as Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee … I would also note that establishing a 12-month coverage duration for already eligible Medicaid moms is different than expanding Medicaid to newly eligible adults under the Affordable Care Act.”

Gunn stressed that he’s been “consistent” in saying he would not support postpartum extension until the Medicaid Division told him it supported the move. He said he suspects the agency sent him the letter because of Reeves’ announcement of support. Previously, Reeves said he didn’t have enough data to show that extending health services to mothers would help their health.

READ MORE: FAQ: What is postpartum Medicaid extension, exactly?

Reeves said Sunday that given the overturning of Roe v. Wade abortion rights, with thousands more births expected in Mississippi with its high rates of infant and maternal mortality and problems, the state should “go above and beyond” to help uninsured mothers.

Gunn said he still opposes broader Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor, as 39 other states have done.

“I still believe there are good solutions that don’t involve government,” Gunn said. “Like the tax credits we’ve proposed, incentives for private-sector solution to help with health care, without expanding government.”

Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Pickens, a member of the House Medicaid Committee, said he believes the legislation will pass in the committee.

“I have mixed emotions,” Clark said. “I am extremely happy mothers are getting coverage. But it shows you how much politics play into the decisions that are made. If it the right thing to do now, which it is, then it was the right thing to do last year and it was the right thing to do earlier this session.

“But I am extremely happy mothers will be covered.”

Clark also said he is pleased that the House Medicaid Committee will be meeting for the first time this session.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves unsure whether providing mothers health care would help their health

Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison contributed to this report.

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Postpartum Medicaid extension is the talk of Mississippi politics this week, with lawmakers, statewide officials and candidates debating the merits of passing the policy designed to help mothers after they give birth.

Lawmakers face a key deadline this week to keep the proposed policy alive, and there is much disagreement about whether it’s right for Mississippi. There have been several rallies and press conferences at the state Capitol this session focused on the issue, and it will continue to emerge as a key theme of the 2023 election cycle.

We’ve compiled answers to some frequently asked questions to help you understand what it is, what it isn’t, and how its potential passage could impact Mississippians.

Click to jump to a specific question.

What is postpartum Medicaid extension, exactly?

Postpartum Medicaid extension is proposed legislation to extend the length of health care coverage for Mississippians on Medicaid who give birth. Postpartum visits can include care of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as mental health issues that might arise after giving birth, such as postpartum depression.

Federal law mandates that states provide postpartum Medicaid coverage for at least 60 days, which is the current limit in Mississippi. After 60 days, most Medicaid patients lose postpartum health care coverage, and this period of time is often most deadly for mothers. Most states, however, have passed measures to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to one full year post-birth — which is what the currently proposed Mississippi legislation would do.

READ MORE: Senate votes to extend postpartum care. Here’s what the bill would do.

Would postpartum Medicaid extension provide cash directly to mothers?

No. Mississippi opting into the program would simply send additional federal funds to the state’s Division of Medicaid, which would then reimburse health care providers directly for any care they provide to qualified mothers. Many politicians, however, have tried to equate Medicaid programs — including the postpartum Medicaid extension — with direct cash assistance in efforts to sow discontent among those opposed to more government spending.

Is postpartum care extension the same thing as Medicaid expansion?

No, postpartum Medicaid extension is not the same thing as Medicaid expansion, despite what prominent elected officials and candidates have said. The proposed postpartum extension would simply extend the length of time Mississippians who already qualify can access postpartum services. Medicaid expansion, which has never been seriously considered by Mississippi’s legislative leaders, would broadly cover health care services for hundreds of thousands of additional Mississippians. “Medicaid expansion,” as it’s commonly referred to by politicians, is a completely separate issue from “postpartum Medicaid extension.”

FAQ: What is Medicaid expansion, really?

What’s the background of this debate, and why does it matter right now?

Mississippi has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and it’s getting worse. The state also has the highest infant mortality rate, preterm birth rate and low birthweight rate in the country. Despite these problems, neonatal ICUs and labor and delivery units continue to close in the state — and the state is expecting thousands more births following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion rights last summer.

Because two-thirds of babies born in Mississippi are born to people on Medicaid, extending postpartum coverage would boost the access to care and health outcomes of thousands of Mississippians, health care officials and researchers say. Doctors, nurses and major medical associations in the state have joined a growing chorus of everyday Mississippi this legislative session calling for postpartum Medicaid extension.

READ MORE: ‘Mississippi moms can’t wait’: Doctors urge legislators to extend postpartum coverage

Who qualifies for postpartum Medicaid coverage?

In Mississippi, pregnant people under 19 years old automatically qualify for pregnancy Medicaid, as well as pregnant people with income under 194% of the federal poverty level, or $2,255 of monthly income for a family of one.

How long are Mississippians who are expecting covered now?

Mississippians on Medicaid have postpartum coverage for two months after giving birth. However, regardless of what postpartum needs they might have beyond 60 days, they lose coverage after that. Research shows that drastic health problems for mothers exist and continue to develop well after two months postpartum.

Have other states extended postpartum Medicaid?

Yes, 29 other states have extended postpartum Medicaid coverage to one year, and seven additional states are planning to offer the extension imminently. States that have also extended postpartum care include contiguous neighbors Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. Mississippi and Wyoming are the only two states that have neither extended postpartum coverage nor expanded Medicaid more broadly.

Why hasn’t it passed yet in Mississippi?

Though the Mississippi Senate has passed postpartum Medicaid extension four times in two years (and most recently on Feb. 7 of this year), the legislation has been killed by the House of Representatives — and specifically, by Speaker of the House Philip Gunn. The House Medicaid Committee appears to not have met at all this session, an important note considering the postpartum Medicaid extension legislation must pass through that committee to go into effect.

READ MORE: Pressure grows for lawmakers to pass postpartum Medicaid extension

Gov. Tate Reeves, who has for months voiced his opposition to the legislation, reversed course and urged lawmakers to pass it on Feb. 26. On Feb. 27, Gunn followed the governor’s lead and said he would not block the legislation from coming to the House floor, a stark departure from his previous opposition to postpartum extension. Gunn said he was waiting on guidance from the state Medicaid Division, which has previously declined taking a position on the issue. However, Medicaid Director Drew Snyder sent Gunn a letter on Feb. 27, voicing his support for the measure.

READ MORE: How Rep. Joey Hood could save the lives of countless Mississippi mothers

Who supports it and why?

Statewide organizations and health professionals have advocated for the policy change, including State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney, the Mississippi State Medical Association, the Mississippi Medical Care Advisory Committee and the Mississippi Economic Council. Additionally, a Mississippi Today survey conducted this session showed that a majority of lawmakers — including members of the House — support the policy measure. Recent polling of Mississippi voters shows that more than two-thirds of the state supports the measure. Advocates say it will widely improve health outcomes in Mississippi.

READ MORE: Survey: Majority of lawmakers support postpartum Medicaid extension

What would the economic impact of passing it be?

Officials and advocates have said that postpartum Medicaid extension would result in net savings for the state by preventing costly medical conditions from lack of treatment. Premature babies can cost the state more than half a million dollars more than babies born at term. It’s estimated that extending postpartum Medicaid coverage in Mississippi would cost about $6 million to $7 million per year, which is a marginal total considering the state’s current $3.9 billion surplus.

Who can extend postpartum Medicaid?

It’s still not clear if Gov. Reeves could pass the policy on his own as head of the state’s Division of Medicaid, though legislative leaders have long said that Reeves has the power to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage without their approval. Reeves recently said if the Legislature passed the bill, he would sign it into law, but he did not address the stated fact that he could pass it himself.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves, after months of resistance, asks lawmakers to pass postpartum Medicaid extension

What’s next?

According to House Medicaid Committee chair, Rep. Joey Hood, the committee will meet Feb. 28, the deadline to keep postpartum extension legislation alive by committee passage, to take up the legislation. The measure is expected to pass.

Editor’s note 2/27/2023: This story has been updated to reflect that Speaker Philip Gunn and Medicaid Director Drew Snyder now say they support the extension of postpartum Medicaid coverage, and news that the House Medicaid Committee will meet to discuss the legislation.

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Gov. Tate Reeves, who for more than a year refused to endorse lengthening postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to a year, on Sunday announced his support for the extension.

In a social media post, the first-term Republican governor facing reelection later this year said the Legislature should pass a bill extending health coverage for new mothers from 60 days to 12 months and that he would sign the proposal into law. It is not clear whether legislation is needed to extend postpartum or whether Reeves, as the head of the Division of Medicaid, could do so on his own. Legislative leaders have for months said Reeves’ administration could pass the policy without legislative approval.

The governor did not address in the social media post acting on his own to extend postpartum coverage.

The governor said he is in support of extending postpartum in light of the Dobbs case, which originated in Mississippi and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning a national right to an abortion. That Supreme Court ruling this past summer triggered a prohibition on most abortions in Mississippi.

“In a post Dobbs world – we may even have to be willing to do things that make us ‘philosophically uncomfortable’,” Reeves wrote on Sunday.

He added, “The Legislature should pass a law continuing this 12 months of postpartum coverage … and if they do I will sign it into law.

“I don’t expect all of my friends to agree with this decision. But I make it – as always – because I believe in my heart it is the right thing to do for Mississippi moms, given the facts as I see them today.”

Reeves’ announcement of support comes two days before a Tuesday deadline to pass out of committee in the House a bill approved by the Senate extending postpartum coverage. The bill appears to be in jeopardy in the House, where Speaker Philip Gunn has voiced opposition and Medicaid Chair Joey Hood, R-Ackerman, has refused to express an opinion on the issue. Hood has not even called a Medicaid Committee meeting this year where the issue could be considered. The GOP-led Senate passed the proposal in the 2022 session, but it was killed in the House.

For about a year, Reeves has refused to endorse extending postpartum coverage. Less than two weeks ago, Reeves said he needed to see more data that showed the health benefits of extending health care to mothers.

Reeves’ comments come after nearly every medical association in the state, many religious groups and his likely November general election opponent, Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, have endorsed the extension.

About 35 states have passed the extension in recent months. The postpartum extension is currently in effect in most of the nation as part of the federal COVID-19 state of emergency. But that emergency is set to end in April, resulting in the end of the extension in states that do not take action to continue it.

Health care officials say the postpartum extension is especially important in Mississippi because it has the nation’s highest infant mortality rate, one of the highest rates of deaths of mothers after pregnancy, and other low health care outcomes for women and children.

In a joint statement, Sen. Derrick Simmons, D-Greenville, and Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, the minority leaders in their respective chambers, said, “The governor’s eleventh-hour endorsement of extending postpartum Medicaid coverage is hardly an endorsement at all. Saying he’ll sign this bill if it comes to him is simply a last-ditch effort to save face on an issue that the vast majority of Mississippians support. It is not courageous; it is craven political theater. The governor could extend postpartum Medicaid coverage right now, with his own signature, if he was truly moved to be the champion of Mississippi families he claims to be in today’s statement.”

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John Eze Uzodinma II, a talented violinist, has been on the Jennifer Hudson show and has played for celebrities and athletes alike. John was born in Madison, Mississippi. He’s the oldest son of Eze and Cynthia Uzodinma. John took an early interest in music and began studying the violin at the age of 8. That passion has driven him to learn numerous instruments and attend numerous summer music festivals and to compete in multiple competitions in locations ranging from British Columbia, Canada, to Sydney, Australia. A graduate of The University of Southern Mississippi and LSU, John is currently working on his doctorate at Southern Miss.

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FEBRUARY 25, 1870

Two days after Mississippi was readmitted to the Union, Hiram Revels became the first Black American elected as U.S. senator. “All men are created equal, says the great Declaration,” Republican Sen, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts said, “and now a great act attests this verity. Today we make the Declaration a reality…. The Declaration was only half established by Independence. The greatest duty remained behind. In assuring the equal rights of all we complete the work.” 

Born free in North Carolina, Revels became a national force in an office once held by Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy. A minister by trade, Revels sought to improve the education of others, working with Black Americans in Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1854, he was imprisoned for preaching to the Black community. After that, he moved to Baltimore, where he served as principal of a Black school. 

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he helped recruit two black regiments from Maryland and later served as chaplain for Black soldiers fighting in Mississippi. After the war ended, he worked for a church in Kansas. On the train, the conductor asked him and his family to move to the smoking car. They refused, and the conductor relented. 

Not long after, he and his family settled in Natchez, Mississippi, he wae was elected as an alderman. Winning over both Black and white with his calls for cooperation, he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, one of more than 30 African Americans to serve in the Legislature during Reconstruction. “We are in the midst of an exciting canvass,” he wrote a friend in a letter. “We are determined that Mississippi shall be settled on a basis of justice and political and legal equality.” 

He drew attention as soon as he arrived with his moving words. After Mississippi lawmakers appointed him to the U.S. Senate, a few tried to block him from taking office. Revels remained steadfast and took office. “I find that the prejudice in this country to color is very great, and I sometimes fear that it is on the increase,” he went on to say. “If the nation should take a step for the encouragement of this prejudice against the colored race, can they have any grounds upon which to predicate a hope that heaven will smile upon them and prosper them?” 

He supported universal amnesty for former Confederates, requiring only their sworn loyalty to the Union. “I am in favor of removing the disabilities of those upon whom they are imposed in the South,” he said, “just as fast as they give evidence of having become loyal and being loyal.” 

After the end of his Senate term in 1871, he became the first president of Alcorn University, the first land-grant school for Black students. He later taught theology at Rust College and died of a stroke in 1901.

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A panel of young Jacksonians at a Thursday evening event urged state leaders to work with Jackson’s local and legislative elected officials — not against them — to find solutions to crime and water problems.

The event, hosted Mississippi Today at Urban Foxes in Belhaven Heights, brought together more than 100 people — political leaders, business owners and everyday Jacksonians — who are concerned about state leaders’ efforts to create a new Jackson judicial and police system and take over the city’s troubled water system. The takeover bills have become subject to intense statewide and national scrutiny, and tensions are historically high between city and state leaders.

READ MORE: ‘Only in Mississippi’: White representatives vote to create white-appointed court system for Blackest city in America

At the event, Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau hosted a Q&A with state Rep. Ronnie Crudup Jr., who encouraged attendees to “not give up” and “find a way to get involved in the fight.”

Then Mississippi Today Managing Editor Kayleigh Skinner moderated a panel featuring Jackson community builder and entrepreneur Ashlee Kelly, advocacy coordinator at OneVoiceMS Courtney Body, and Hunter Evans, chef and owner of Elvie’s. All the panelists agreed that the best way to address the city’s crime and water problems would be for local and state leaders to work together.

The event was hosted at Urban Foxes, a coffee shop in Belhaven Heights neighborhood of Jackson. Music was provided by Jackson DJ Daddy Bug.

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Sen. Joey Fillingane, defending a controversial bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans minors, said on the Senate floor Tuesday he’d recently spoken with a Hattiesburg-based plastic surgeon who told him he’d performed gender-confirmation surgery on 17-year-old trans kids. 

That plastic surgeon, contacted Wednesday by Mississippi Today, says he didn’t tell Fillingane that and wants the senator to recant his statement.

Though lawmakers this session have fast-tracked House Bill 1125 – which would ban gender-affirming care including hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender-confirmation surgery for minors – they had been unable to identify any in-state surgeons that have operated on trans youth. 

That is, until this past Tuesday, when Fillingane presented the bill to the Senate. He took many by surprise when he said he’d talked to “plastic surgeons in Hattiesburg” who told him they had “on occasion” performed gender-confirmation surgeries on 17-year-olds with parental consent. 

“I don’t think it’s often,” Fillingane, R-Sumrall, said on the Senate floor. “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s rampant or it happens a lot, but with one plastic surgeon friend of mine that I’ve spoken with in Hattiesburg just this weekend, he confirmed that, ‘Yeah, I can’t give you specifics, but yeah, I’ve done this.’” 

Dr. Paul Talbot, who founded the Plastic Surgery Center of Hattiesburg in 1998, told Mississippi Today he is the surgeon Fillingane talked to. He recalled the recent conversation with Fillingane — which took place after the men ran into each other at Revolution Fitness in Hattiesburg — differently. 

“It was a two-minute conversation,” Talbot said. “I was on one elliptical, he was on the other.” 

While they were exercising, Talbot said he told Fillingane he has taken on trans adults as clients but has never performed surgery on trans kids. 

“I’ve never done anybody (trans) under the age of 18,” Talbot told Mississippi Today. “He must’ve misheard that because no, we’ve never done that. Never had someone ask me under 18 to do it.” 

Talbot said he may have told Fillingane he might consider performing surgery on a trans teenager under certain circumstances, but he probably would not do it. (International organizations that set standards for gender-affirming care say surgery is appropriate for trans youth in some cases.) 

“If I’m gonna do it for you, one is you gotta be 18,” he said. “Two, I need a letter from your psychiatrist that says you’re stable enough and you know what you’re doing before I’ll even consider it.”

It wasn’t a big deal to talk to Fillingane about HB 1125, Talbot said, because the two have been friends for more than 10 years, and it seemed like the senator was curious about his experience as a surgeon. 

He doesn’t want Fillingane to feel called out but said that it is a shame this misunderstanding is now “part of the record” of the bill. 

“For the political climate in Mississippi, it’s probably a good thing for him,” Talbot said. “But for trans people, it’s probably a bad thing for them.” 

Speaking to Mississippi Today in his office Thursday, Fillingane wouldn’t say that he spoke with Talbot over the weekend, but he said he only spoke to one plastic surgeon who he knows “from the gym.”

“I’m not gonna confirm or deny the person, but I heard what I heard, obviously,” Fillingane said. “I was speaking on that bill, so to whomever I was speaking with, I don’t know how one could mishear something. You’re talking about a specific bill that deals with this specific issue of surgeries related to folks who are trying to transition from one sex to the other.” 

Fillingane added that he’s had “a bunch” of other conversations about HB 1125, including one with the Mississippi State Medical Association’s government relations staffer, who said the organization has no position on the bill. 

“One conversation, whether it was misheard or not, certainly does not comprise the entirety of my due diligence on this bill,” Fillingane said. 

After Mississippi Today spoke with Fillingane, he sent Talbot a text apologizing “for any unwanted attention you may have received from the HB 1125 coverage.” 

“I wanted you to know that I never told them press your name but it seems they have figured it out because I was ambushed by a reporter from MS Today earlier today because I had said I had spoken with a plastic surgeon friend of mine from Hattiesburg about the bill,” he wrote. “They apparently pieced it together but I would never confirm nor deny who it was that I had spoken with but I apologize anyway.” 

It’s likely that HB 1125, which passed the Senate on Tuesday along party lines, would have been headed to the governor’s desk whether or not Fillingane had claimed to find a surgeon in Mississippi who has performed gender-confirmation surgery on trans minors. 

Regardless of the outcome of his conversation at the gym, Fillingane said he would have supported the bill.  

“Even if you were to accept for the sake of argument that these particular surgeries don’t happen at all or certainly very often in this state, so therefore we don’t need this bill, I think (that) misses the larger point,” he said. “There are other parts of this bill, i.e. the prescription of puberty blocking drugs and the prescribing of cross hormone therapies, that I think we all can admit is in fact happening in Mississippi.”  

Other powerful elected officials, like Gov. Tate Reeves, have claimed with no proof that gender-confirmation surgery is harming Mississippi children. 

“While some in our country push surgical mutilation onto 11 year olds, even here in Mississippi, even liberal darlings like Finland and Denmark and Sweden don’t allow these surgeries to be performed on kids who are under the age of 18,” Reeves said in his State of the State address. 

Similar claims misrepresent just how difficult it is for trans kids in Mississippi to access gender-affirming care, advocates and in-state providers say. 

There is just one clinic in the state — Spectrum: The Other Clinic in Hattiesburg — that currently prescribes puberty blockers and hormones to teenagers 16 years or older. Younger trans kids and their families must go out of state to access these medications, which often aren’t covered by insurance and can be costly, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars a year. 

Rob Hill, the state director of the Human Rights Campaign Mississippi, said he is angry that Fillingane, Reeves and other lawmakers have spread misinformation this session about gender-affirming care because it endangers already vulnerable trans kids. Gender-affirming care is evidence-based and multiple studies have shown it significantly reduces suicidality among trans kids who receive it. 

Fillingane is “somebody that touts his faith very often, and I would say that this is not a faithful act,” Hill said. “What the lieutenant governor did, what the speaker did and what the governor’s ultimately going to do — and those who voted for this legislation — is not faithful … it was harmful.” 

The misinformation and lack of research by lawmakers is typical for bills that take on “culture war” issues in Mississippi. In 2021, lawmakers could not identify any complaints about trans athletes in Mississippi despite banning their participation on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Last year, many lawmakers were repeatedly asked to correctly define “critical race theory” and could not. 

But this session, Fillingane sought to do what no other Republican lawmaker had done so far in the debate around HB 1125: Talk to actual providers of gender-affirming care in Mississippi. On Monday, he invited Stacie and Lee Pace, the owners of Spectrum: The Other Clinic, to meet with him in his office about the care they provide. 

At the gym, Talbot recalled a more casual conversation. 

“This was no big formal thing where you’re taking notes or anything like that,” he said, noting that Fillingane’s questions were about what he does and how many trans people he’s operated “as far as, is it a big number.” 

Talbot estimated he has performed chest surgery on five trans adults roughly the ages of 24 or 25 who had psychiatric letters, which is what he says he told Fillingane. 

In general, Talbot said he doesn’t operate on people under 18 because that’s what he believes is moral. He said most surgeons in Mississippi do the same. 

“I wouldn’t bend that rule just because we’re doing a gender transition,” he said. 

There’s only a few instances in which Talbot would, like a congential condition that results in substantially uneven breasts. Talbot also gave this example: “She’s gonna be 18 in a month or two, and so you’re going to college, where, you know, before you go to college, every body knows your body image before you get there. Mom’s on board, and it seems like a reasonable thing. Yes, yeah, I’ve done that. But again, that’s rare.” 

The gender binary is not as clear-cut as some Mississippians might think, Talbot said. He thinks of cosmetic procedures for cis people as on the same spectrum as those for trans people. 

“Typically once you have them draped out in the operating room ready to do surgery, I couldn’t tell if it’s a boy or girl lying on the table,” he said. 

There’s no difference, he said, when it comes to the actual procedure: A mastectomy for a cis woman is performed exactly the same way as “top surgery” on a trans man. Still, in Mississippi and across the country, trans people face more barriers in obtaining the same procedures that cis people can get with little questions asked. 

“I don’t put a big weight on transitioning,” Talbot said. “I mean, we screen them, I think, better. … We probably find out a lot more information. When it comes down to doing the surgery, it’s just another operation I’ve done 15,000 times, and this one’s no different from the last 15,000.” 

All Mississippians should be able to get plastic surgery if they can pay for it, Talbot said. That’s why he doesn’t take insurance. 

“There’s lots of girls, thank goodness, walking around with small breasts that want big breasts,” he said. “You don’t get them just because you’ve got small breasts. It’s the same thing to me.” 

As the two were exercising, Talbot said he told Fillingane that he doesn’t think House Bill 1125 is a good idea. 

“I don’t like them reducing what people can do or limiting what people can do – for anybody, for any group,” Talbot said. “It doesn’t seem right.” 

The next time he sees Fillingane at the gym, Talbot said he’ll ask him to take back his comments. 

“When I see Joey, I’ll have to say to him, ‘Hey, you need to recant that or whatever because no I’ve never done that,’” Talbot said. “Again, he was on the (elliptical), I was on the (elliptical). It could easily have been misunderstood, I would think.” 

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