Talk about gender-affirming care in the U.S. is slowly approaching its peak thanks to more people opting to go transgender. According to a recent survey from The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation,
up to 78% of transgender adults say living with a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth has made them more satisfied with their lives.
Among those who took the survey, more than three-quarters chose to change their type of clothing, hairstyle, or grooming habits to align with their preferred gender. About 31% opted for hormone treatments, and 16% got gender-affirming surgery or a related surgical treatment to alter their appearance.
Unfortunately, such options are becoming available on a more limited basis. This is because politicians in multiple states have attempted to restrict trans-Americans’ ability to seek gender-affirming medical treatments.
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Gender-affirming care, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, is “age-appropriate care that is medically necessary for the well-being of many transgender and non-binary people who experience symptoms of gender dysphoria, or distress that results from having one’s gender identity not match their sex assigned at birth.”
The organization notes that both the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support “age-appropriate, gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary people.”
Conservatives usually oppose the concept of gender-affirming care – which may or may not include surgery or other interventions – for various reasons. But chief among them include religious beliefs and concerns about child abuse.
“You don’t disfigure 10-, 12-, 13-year-old kids based on gender dysphoria,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said at an August news conference.
Some have expressed concern about a lack of data on the possible long-term consequences of gender-affirming medical treatment for minors. A 2022 Reuters investigation, for example, found “no large-scale studies have tracked people who received gender-related medical care as children to determine how many remained satisfied with their treatment as they aged and how many eventually regretted transitioning.”
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Some have raised alarms about children who are not appropriately evaluated before receiving gender-affirming medical care. Even today, the debate is ongoing among citizens, but politicians have been making moves based on where they stand.
In the U.S., the following states currently have a ban on gender-affirming care:
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- West Virginia
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Some states, such as Arizona and Alabama, passed bans before 2023 and are not on the list. Legislators in other states are still considering a host of bills, while officials elsewhere, including in Florida and Missouri, have bypassed state legislatures altogether.
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