Elliot Page and Lilly Wachowski Join the Fight Against an Anti-Trans Health Care Ban

Elliot Page and The Matrix co-director Lilly Wachowski have joined forces with dozens of trans activists on an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit against Arkansas' cruel, anti-trans health care ban.

House Bill 1570, which is the first of its kind in the nation, specifically targets health care for trans children. It prohibits medical professionals from offering gender-affirming health care, including hormone blockers and treatments. The law passed in April after the state's legislature overrode Gov. Asa Hutchinson's veto.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of Arkansas in May, on the behalf of two doctors and four families, leading a federal judge to place a temporary block on the law while it is debated in the courts.

Page and Wachowski lent their voices as two of the 58 trans adults who, as part of the lawsuit filed by the ACLU, shared the positive impact that gender-affirming care had on their lives.

Wachowski recalled the effect of seeing glimpses of herself once she "started living as my true self," she wrote, and how her heart would "skip a beat" when she saw her reflection or shadow. "The silhouette of my shadow on the ground cast by the afternoon sun was exhilarating and life-affirming," she said. "If no one else did, the sun saw me as I am."

Page opened up about how life-changing his top surgery was, as it freed him from suffering from an aspect of his body that was a constant source of "discomfort."

"I couldn't believe the amount of energy I had, ideas, and how my imagination flourished, because the constant discomfort and pain around that aspect of my body was gone," he explained.

Along with trans activists and celebrities, the brief was filed alongside various others, including those from 21 other states, medical groups, trans youth voices, Lambda Legal, National Women's Law Center, and bioethicists.