Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, is requesting Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) strike a provision from the annual defense policy bill targeting some medical treatments for transgender children.

House and Senate negotiators unveiled a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) late Saturday, including a provision that would prevent TRICARE, the military’s health program, from covering gender dysphoria treatments “that could result in sterilization” for children under 18.

A more specific provision adopted by the Senate Armed Services Committee in its defense bill in July would have explicitly barred coverage for “affirming hormone therapy” and puberty blockers, as well as medical interventions for gender dysphoria — distress that stems from a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and sex at birth — for minors that “could result in sterilization.”

If the current provision is ratified, it will be the first federal statute targeting LGBTQ people since the........

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