Utah is the first state of 2023 to ban gender-affirming care for minors
And unfortunately, it likely won't be the last of 2023, as at least 25 states have introduced similar bills.
On Saturday, Utah Gov. Cox signed into law a measure banning gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty-blockers, hormone-replacement therapy, and surgeries.
This goes against all the major medical organizations in the United States, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association. They all recognize that gender-affirming medical care can greatly improve the lives of trans teens1 when determined to be medically necessary.
Brittney Nystrom, Executive Director of the ACLU of Utah, expressed that it's unconstitutional.
Whether or not you're concerned about the risks associated with gender-affirming care, there is absolutely no grounds for a ban. Gender-affirming care has saved countless lives and improved the life prospects for countless others. It's okay to have "concerns" about when, how, and why kids access gender-affirming medical care. Genuine and sincere "concerns" are expressed in "how do we make this better and safer for the teens that need it, while making reasonable efforts to steer those away from such care when it's not needed?" That's the avenue of thought you follow when you genuinely and sincerely have concerns about trans kids. The opposite of genuine and sincere concerns is outright bans that prevent all children from potentially life-saving gender-affirming medical care.
As standard operating procedure for Republicans, the focus is on the risks of the 3% instead of the risks to the 97%. People talk about "irreversible" harm. Suicide is "irreversible" as well. Puberty is "irreversible" — there are permanent changes to the body shape, facial features, and voice (for trans girls). HRT, and even surgery in most instances, can't reverse those things. Even setting aside the risks of mental health and suicide, the sentiment that teens can just wait a few years until they are adults to make these medical decisions is short-sighted. When people talk about the risks of “irreversible” changes, they should be thinking about the vast, vast majority of kids who will endure life-long consequences due to medical care being withheld. Consider for a moment how horrific that is for the trans teen going through the wrong puberty, and there’s nothing they can do or will ever be able to do to reverse it.
Bigger picture, far too many people are not paying attention to what's really going on here, including a lot of folks left-of-center — Republicans are counting on this. These out-right bans are the first steps to delegitimizing trans rights and imposing bans for trans adults as well. Folks, we've seen this script before — just like abortion rights, it never stops. Republicans make up "concerns" that at first may sound kind of superficially reasonable. “Think of the children!” they cry — that should be the first red flag — we already know Republicans don't care about “the children” — they legislatively show this every time there is a vote. However, upon closer inspection, the extent of their concerns are rarely grounded in truth, fact, or reality. They start chipping away little by little, state by state, pushing the age upward, introducing an overwhelming number of bills knowing that some will eventually stick, and generally making life so unpredictable, miserable, and dangerous, that trans people (and eventually all LGBTQ+ people) are effectively pushed back into the closet.
Help spread the word that trans “bans” are not a rational or justifiable means of protecting anyone other than transphobic bigots.
1 While WPATH guidelines do not state a specific age threshold, as they recognize that all human beings are unique, gender-affirming medical care is only potentially necessary at the onset of puberty. Despite what you may have heard, surgeries are not performed on little kids, and very rarely on minors of any age. This is akin to the “late-term” abortions hysteria ginned up by Republicans.
