A report released March 22 by the LGBTQ+ rights organization Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation says that 50.4 percent of transgender youth ages 13 to 17 in the United States have lost or are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming medical care in their state.
One in four trans youth live in states that have already passed bans on gender-affirming care, which includes hormone therapy or puberty blockers. Another quarter of trans youth live in states where there are bills currently being considered that would ban gender-affirming care.
“LGBTQ+ people are living in a state of emergency. [These] findings illustrate how the ongoing assault against transgender people is taking hold across the country and underscore how dire the situation is growing for our community by the day,” says Jay Brown, the HRC’s senior vice president of programs, research, and training.
Proposed State Laws Target Multiple Aspects of Transgender Health and Identity
Eleven states have passed bans on access to gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth younger than 18. In some of those states, including Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas, court injunctions are temporarily allowing care to continue.
Twenty more states are considering at least one policy or law banning gender-affirming care for minors. These draft bills are just some of the more than 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills being considered in the United States this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
While more than 100 of these proposed laws would prevent transgender people from accessing medical care related to their transitions, other proposed regulations would ban:
- Drag performances
- Access to bathrooms aligned with a person’s gender identity
- Inclusive books and school curricula
- The ability to update a name or gender marker on an ID
Children Develop Gender Identity at a Young Age
According to a June 2022 report from the Williams Institute, there are about 300,000 transgender youth ages 13 to 17 in the United States today. The HRC Foundation report estimates that anti-LGBTQ+ bills could restrict access to medical care for more than 150,000 of these kids across the country.
Individuals develop a sense of their gender identity by age 4, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, and going on puberty blockers at the start of puberty or beginning hormone therapy during the teen years can treat gender dysphoria for youth who know they are transgender.
Gender dysphoria is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity. Gender-affirming care alleviates this mismatch, which is important for a person’s mental health.
Even without legal barriers, access to hormone therapy was already difficult for transgender youth. According to study published in the December 2021 Journal of Adolescent Health, half of transgender and nonbinary youth ages 13 to 24 reported that they were not using gender-affirming hormone therapy but would like to. Another 14 percent were receiving it, and 36 percent were not interested in using it.
Gender-Affirming Therapy Offers Significant Mental Health Protections for Trans and Nonbinary Minors
That same study found that those who were receiving hormone therapy had lower odds of depression and suicidality than those who wanted the care but did not receive it. Specifically, trans youth under 18 had nearly 40 percent lower odds of a suicide attempt within the last year if they had access to the hormone therapy they wanted.
Izzy Lowell, MD, the founder of the clinic QueerMed in Decatur, Georgia, is deeply concerned about the mental health of her young transgender patients. QueerMed’s only service is gender-affirming care for transgender patients, and Dr. Lowell is one of six providers at the clinic offering care in 25 states via telemedicine. About 20 percent of QueerMed’s patients are under 18, about 600 people. Half of those are in Georgia and could be directly affected by a law set to take effect July 1 banning gender-affirming care for minors.
“Patients and families are beside themselves, absolutely panicked with these attacks,” Lowell says. “People feel hated, attacked, scared, at a loss for what to do.”
Lowell worries that the effects of the ban in Georgia could be life-threatening: “It’s been well-documented that hormone therapy decreases the risk of suicide among [transgender] teens by half. Almost 90 percent of transgender and nonbinary teens have considered suicide and about 40 percent have attempted suicide. Hormone therapy cuts the rate of completed suicide in half. So without hormone therapy treatment available to trans teens, I’m really, really worried we’re going to see a spike in the suicide rate.”
Discriminatory Laws Also Take a Toll on Transgender Kids’ Mental Health
It’s not just the lack of access to hormone therapy but also the discussion and passage of these laws that is affecting trans youth’s mental health. Lowell is concerned about the extreme stress that anti-trans rhetoric and news of anti-trans laws causes to youth. “Kids are aware of these laws going into effect, whether or not it directly affects them,” she adds. “People are terrified and being actively persecuted by the government.”
from Ketone Blog https://ketone2013.com/state-laws-are-banning-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-youth/
via Keto News
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