The Nashville Metro Employee Benefit Board voted against covering transgender treatments for city employees on Wednesday despite lobbying by the city’s Democratic mayor, John Cooper.

Cooper told board members that adding such treatments and sex-change surgeries to city employee insurance coverage would improve employee recruitment and retention. Cooper’s arguments failed to sway most of the board members, according to Axios.

“Working closely with the LGBTQ caucus, our Administration pushed hard to enact this live-saving change to our health care coverage,” Cooper said in a statement after the measure was voted down. “As a result [of this vote], our trans employees will have to wait at least another year for their rights to be affirmed by their peers on the Benefits Board.”

The vote came the same day that Daily Wire host Matt Walsh revealed after an undercover investigation that transgender health care providers are “rubber-stamping” patients to receive transgender treatments even if they do not qualify. The providers purportedly provide letters to patients upon request that argue such procedures should be covered by insurance companies.

The board’s decision comes amid growing backlash to transgender ideology, especially as the ideology relates to children and grows more pervasive among influential medical groups. Organizations such as the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics have come out in support of “gender-affirming care” that includes hormone treatments and sex-change surgeries for minors in recent years.

States are increasingly moving to block such procedures. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed one such law in March that was scheduled to take effect on July 1. The Department of Justice has sued Tennessee over the law, claiming that it violates the 14 Amendment. A related law intended to shield children from sexually explicit performances was blocked by a federal judge last week.

Tennessee Republicans slammed the ruling from U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker.

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“I am disappointed with the judge’s decision on Senate Bill 3, which ignored 60 years of Supreme Court precedent allowing regulation of obscene entertainment in the presence of minors. Sadly, this ruling is a victory for those who support exposing children to sexual entertainment,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), who authored the bill.

President Joe Biden intends to nominate Charlie Crist as an ambassador, the White House said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes about seven months after Crist lost his bid to defeat Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and reclaim his old job after more than a decade.

In particular, Crist is being picked to be the U.S. representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) with the rank of ambassador. The ICAO, an agency of the United Nations which has its headquarters in Montreal, is focused on promoting civil aviation safety.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot famous for making a 2009 emergency landing in the Hudson River, served as U.S. representative to ICAO after being confirmed by the Senate in late 2021, but he abruptly decided to step down that following summer.

Crist, who has swapped parties over the years, previously served as Florida attorney general, governor, and then as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned from Congress in late August after beating Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried in the Democratic Party’s primary in the governor’s race.

Despite receiving a campaign boost from Biden, who called the Florida gubernatorial election “one of the most important races in the country,” Crist lost by double digits to DeSantis.

“Former Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist gets a consolation prize from Biden,” observed Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan in response to the White House nomination announcement.

Crist’s old House seat is now held by Republican Anna Paulina Luna, who won the general election contest to represent Florida’s redrawn 13th Congressional District. Several weeks after former President Donald Trump praised Crist for doing a “good job” as governor in an attack on DeSantis. DeSantis announced he is running for president last month.

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Crist is “a political leader and attorney” who “has dedicated his life to public service,” the White House said. Its statement also touted how Crist “guided the state through challenging times, including the Great Recession and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill” as Florida governor.

“Despite drastic budget shortfalls due to the economic crisis, he made public education a top priority, steering federal stimulus funding to save thousands of teachers’ jobs,” the White House added. “He is also a staunch environmental advocate, working at the federal and state levels to help secure billions in public and private aid to restore the Florida Everglades.”