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.
Banning them only prevents children from receiving life saving care, like mastectomies to remove cancer.
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Nobody is talking about mastectomies to remove cancer. We are talking about banning minors from elective surgeries.
Depending on the circumstances, surgery to excise cancer can be elective. Don’t even fight me on this one, my family has a history of elective surgery to remove cancer.
Again, we aren’t talking about mastectomies to remove cancer. We are talking about elective mastectomies (and other surgeries) classified as gender affirming care. Removing cancer is not gender affirming care.
Again, my family has had elective mastectomies to excise cancer. This is relevant, because these laws are in the same vein as “abortion is banned, except to save the life of a mother”. We’ve seen how that turns out.