Legislators in at least two U.S. states are citing a recent decision in England to restrict gender transitions for young people as support for their own related proposals.
They weren’t the first to turn to other countries, notably in Europe, for policy and research ideas. Lawmakers across the U.S., where at least 23 states now have tightened or removed access to transgender health care for minors, have routinely cited non-U.S. research or policies as justification for their legislation.
Yet leading health organizations in the United States and Europe continue to decisively endorse gender-affirming care for both transgender youths and adults.
Among other things, they argue that restrictions on things like hormone therapy tend to single out transgender youths, even though other young people also can benefit from them. And transgender advocates and allies see a political attempt to erase them, cloaked as concern for children.
That’s a great study, but it ignores one massively important point: you can be trans and not dysphoric, quite a few trans people aren’t dysphoric.
Dysphoria is distress you feel because a gender mismatch. It’s entirely possible for a 7 year old boy to hate the fact that he was born male and be very upset over that. And that same person at 20 could be completely at peace with it.
They might be happily going through life as a male, female, or anything else, the paper doesn’t say. If you stop being upset over the gender assigned at birth, you’re not dysphoric anymore, that’s all that’s measured.
This paper doesn’t say “most dysphoric boys stop wanting to be girls before they’re 20”. It says “most dysphoric boys stop hating the fact they were born as boys before they’re 20”. Hell they might have fully transitioned, the paper doesn’t say.