CP Hoffman Senior Policy Attorney National Center for Transgender Equality, tells SELF that policies that deny trans people gender-affirming care are especially dangerous for teenagers who are already experiencing the turmoil of adolescence. If you think about it, there’s a lot of body phobia associated with it,” they say. “You watch your body grow. [thinking], ok, this is great. Ok, this is weird. For trans teenagers, the feeling of being denied gender-affirming care is compounded. “I have something that might help you. [but] You’re being told by people in power, ‘Oh, you’re mentally disturbed for wanting this,'” explains Hoffman.
They add that hormone therapy is not new and is sometimes recommended for cisgender children. puberty too early.[Hormonal therapies have] It’s been used on cisgender children for decades.Now that it’s been made public that transgender children are doing this too, there’s a moral panic,” Hoffman says. But if they were actually concerned with children’s health, not just promoting stigma and oppressing transgender youth, they would try to ban hormone therapy for women. everyone, they are not. for example, Tennessee Legislature Proposed Bill in November Proposing a ban on hormone therapy (and other forms of gender-affirming care) given to transgender youth, and stating, “States should encourage adolescents, especially those who enter puberty, to understand their own sex.” and have a legitimate, substantive and compelling interest.” —but do exempt for the very treatments they seek to outlaw in other circumstances (such as treatment for “birth defects, disease, or bodily injury”). The bill also echoes a lie often used by Republican lawmakers, stating: As Hoffman points out, gender-affirming care is “harmful,” Major medical associations In the United States, which has examined this issue, it supports gender-affirming care by: Appropriate Care for Adults and Minors“
but Anti-trans laws surged last yearthe mainstream media focuses more on the flawed moral argument than on the issue of thousands of people being deprived of safe healthcare. New York Times, For example, a recently published article, Parents Don’t Know When Students Change Gender Identity, raised the question of whether parents should know if their children have made a social transition. However, some possibilities were barely mentioned. Child safety may be threatened If others in their family or community knew they had done so. Atlantic We also recently published an article called “Take Detransitioners Seriously”. As writer Evan Urquhart points outfocuses on the story of a former Navy SEAL associated with the Christian nationalist movement, who expressed anti-trans sentiment.
Lawmakers drafting legislation to ban gender-affirming medicine fear that outlawing it is dangerous. “Gender-affirming care inherently means providing an environment of validation and affirmation that all people deserve,” says Dr. Matuk. “[It] higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideationself-harm [trans and gender nonbinary] People’s experiences compared to their cisgender peers.
Compulsive anti-trans press not only damages the mental health of teenagers, says Dr. Matowuk: Prohibited items are specified. “The denial or criminalization of gender-affirming care has significant negative consequences,” she says. “Limited care not only directly threatens mental and physical health, [trans and nonbinary] It also exacerbates prejudice, discrimination and violence against communities. “
In the hateful political and cultural environment we currently live in, research that seems to be new NEJM The research adds sound science to the conversation, Dr. Matouk said.
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