Bangladesh, Dec. 20 -- Recent efforts to withdraw federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to transgender adolescents represent more than a controversial policy choice. They constitute an assault on the very conditions under which transgender people can exist as recognized members of the moral and political community. While such a move is indefensible from familiar ethical standpoints—utilitarian and deontological alike—it is from a Fichtean perspective that its deeper irrationality comes into view. Properly understood, this policy is not merely unjust or harmful; it is a denial of recognition that strikes at the heart of the states purpose and undermines the intelligibility of healthcare as a public i...