Trans Rights in the News
A mom’s guide to faith and raising a trans kid and finding room in the church
Trans woman not guilty in public indecency charge for using locker room. The woman had previously used the YMCA women’s locker room in Xenia, Ohio in 2022, prompting patrons to file reports with police. The YMCA had authorized her to use the women’s locker room facilities before the complaints.
May 23. Washington Post
What to know about transgender-care bans
This week, Nebraska joined 18 other states to restrict or outright ban gender-affirming care. Texas is on its way to doing the same. Transgender Americans have become a political flash point in recent years, as the number of young people seeking transition care has surged, raising questions about who should get such care and how old they need to be. Conservatives in state legislatures have capitalized on these questions to push anti-trans legislation.
What does gender-affirming care actually mean, and is it dangerous? Here is a rundown of what we know, based largely on medical associations and this FAQ from The Washington Post.
What is transgender?: It means that a person’s “deep internal sense of being” does not match their assigned sex at birth, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Gender dysphoria, which many transgender people experience, is a diagnosable disorder according to the American Psychiatry Association. To receive any medical treatment, adolescents usually have to experience this mismatch of gender for at least six months.
What treatment doctors recommend: Nothing before puberty. After that, adolescents can receive puberty blockers. These hormonal treatments pause puberty and are “intended to give young people more time to decide what to do next,” The Post’s Samantha Schmidt reports. They do come with some health risks, such as weakening of bones and potential fertility issues later in life, so doctors want this to be studied more. Doctors do not recommend surgery before 18.
Why doctors recommend treatment: The medical community believes doing nothing is worse for an adolescents’ health and could lead to anxiety, depression or even suicide. Major medical organizations, such as the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics, signed a letter last year opposing bans on care, saying these treatments are part of comprehensive primary care for some transgender people.
That means Republican gender-care bans are in direct contrast with what doctors recommend. But such bans are politically popular. A recent Washington Post-KFF poll found that a majority of Americans oppose puberty blockers for transgender children (but a majority also oppose discriminating against transgender children in schools).
A majority of Americans also have concerns about transgender women in female sports; a Post-University of Maryland poll last year found that 58 percent of Americans oppose allowing transgender women to compete against female athletes at the college and professional levels.