ANGELA WEISS / Getty Images
South Dakota lawmakers voted Wednesday on a bill that would make it criminal for doctors to provide puberty-blockers, hormones, or any gender-affirmation surgeries to anyone under the age of 16.
South Dakota lawmakers voted Wednesday on a bill that would make it criminal for doctors to provide puberty-blockers, hormones, or any gender-affirmation surgeries to anyone under the age of 16.
The bill is supported by social conservatives in the state's Republican-controlled legislature who say that transgender people under 16 are "too young" to make medical decisions about their gender identity.
A recent study found that trans kids have a firm grasp of their gender identity. Another found gender-affirming care reduces rates of suicide among transgender youth.
On Wednesday, South Dakota's House passed a bill that would penalize doctors for providing gender affirmation treatments — like hormone treatments, puberty-blockers, and gender-affirming surgeries — to anyone under the age of 16.
If passed by the state Senate and ultimately signed by the governor, the bill would punish doctors with up to one year of jail time and a fine of up to $2,000.
Social conservatives in the state's Republican-dominated Congress who support HR 1057, like state representative Fred Deutsch, have said that transgender youth are "too young" to make life-altering medical decisions based on their gender identity.
Similar age-restricting bills have been proposed in seven other states: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, South Carolina, Colorado, Florida, and Oklahoma.
Experts say the bill could have grave consequences.
"This bill runs counter to a mountain of medical and social science literature that shows transgender youths' health significantly improve with access to supportive and gender affirming-health care, resulting in a reduction in suicide rates of transgender youth," Shawn Meerkamper and Dale Melchert, senior staff attorney and staff attorney for the Transgender Law Center, wrote in an email to Insider.
The law would ban young people from accessing puberty blockers, which delay body changes that can be traumatic and confusing
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty ImagesSupporters of the bill have likened HR 1057
to pressing a "pause button" on transgender children receiving gender
affirmation procedures until after they turn 16, rather than a ban.
Critics say it would do the opposite.
Parts of puberty, like growing breasts or body hair, can be traumatic for teens who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. In many cases, it can trigger something called gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person feels like their body doesn't match their gender identity. Dysphoria has been linked to depression and anxiety and significantly increased risks of substance abuse and suicide.
To prevent or minimize dysphoria, doctors can prescribe puberty blockers, which halt puberty, allowing trans teens to make decisions about whether they want to take hormones to transition later in life, or not.
These procedures are not necessary for all transgender or non-binary people — many opt to not take hormones or have surgery at all. But for many, puberty blockers are extremely important for the mental health and safety of many other transgender and non-binary people.
Critics say it would do the opposite.
Parts of puberty, like growing breasts or body hair, can be traumatic for teens who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. In many cases, it can trigger something called gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person feels like their body doesn't match their gender identity. Dysphoria has been linked to depression and anxiety and significantly increased risks of substance abuse and suicide.
To prevent or minimize dysphoria, doctors can prescribe puberty blockers, which halt puberty, allowing trans teens to make decisions about whether they want to take hormones to transition later in life, or not.
These procedures are not necessary for all transgender or non-binary people — many opt to not take hormones or have surgery at all. But for many, puberty blockers are extremely important for the mental health and safety of many other transgender and non-binary people.
Gender-affirming care has been found to reduce rates of depression and suicide among transgender youth
Mark Makela/Getty Images
A study by doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, published
January 1 in the medical journal Pediatrics, found that
wanted to, rather than going through puberty, had significantly less
suicidal ideations throughout their lifetimes than those who did not.
"Gender-affirming health care saves lives," Melchert and Meerkamper, who were not involved in the study, told Insider.
"Transgender youth are already up against astronomical rates of bullying, violence, and suicide, and they already face tremendous barriers to accessing health care. They don't need their state legislators piling on."
Keisling said that this kind of ban would prevent families, and their medical practitioners, from making life-saving, private medical decisions.
"These are parents who are just trying to do the best they can," Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Insider. "And this makes that harder. It makes it harder to live in South Dakota. It makes it harder to be a kid."
A recent study debunked the idea that under-16s are 'too young' to make medical decisions about their gender
"Gender-affirming health care saves lives," Melchert and Meerkamper, who were not involved in the study, told Insider.
"Transgender youth are already up against astronomical rates of bullying, violence, and suicide, and they already face tremendous barriers to accessing health care. They don't need their state legislators piling on."
Keisling said that this kind of ban would prevent families, and their medical practitioners, from making life-saving, private medical decisions.
"These are parents who are just trying to do the best they can," Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told Insider. "And this makes that harder. It makes it harder to live in South Dakota. It makes it harder to be a kid."
A recent study debunked the idea that under-16s are 'too young' to make medical decisions about their gender
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images
The bill says that transgender children are "too young" to know what their gender identity is for certain.
A recent study by Princeton University researchers, published in PNAS, found that transgender children who are able to "socially transition" — or live as the gender they identify with — develop a firm grasp of their gender identity at the same age their cisgender peers do.
Regardless of how long it had been since a transgender child had socially transitioned, they identified as strongly with the gender they are rather than the one they were assigned at birth as their cisgender peers did.
"We trust kids to tell us what their gender is unless they're trans kids," Keisling told Insider.
Read more:
Beauty YouTuber NikkieTutorials came out as a transgender woman in an emotional video. Here are 4 other trans YouTubers.
15 iconic moments in the LGBTQ rights movement from the last decade
A trans dad underwent $30,000 worth of fertility treatments to have a baby. He says his insurance company refused to pay.
No comments:
Post a Comment