The ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans kids was blocked yesterday by a federal judge -- to be specifically, the state is permanently enjoined from enforcing the bill. (Donate to the ACLU, who brought the case.) In celebration of that, I thought I would do my best to educate people who have been fed a stream of bigoted lies by Fox News and others.
You may go here to access the 80 page brief, outlining in detail how difficult it is -- and this is without a ban -- for any trans kid to access any gender affirming medical care:
We hear so many scare stories about healthcare for trans youth that it's really worth reading about the plaintiffs in the Arkansas ruling and the hoops they had to jump through to get treatment in the first place. These kids deserve a normal life. https://t.co/17sA8dIwSs pic.twitter.com/xkLQ4wqsYz
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) June 22, 2023
People are constantly being lied to, told that six year olds get surgery that sterilizes them for life, or that parents notice their child playing with dolls or blocks and force them to become trans, and other similar ludicrous bullshit. As the parent of a trans kid, I can tell you, that is not how it happens. Not even fucking remotely.
And honestly, do you want the state deciding what kind of health care your child can access? Is that the country you want to live in?
Oh, sure, I know it's the country (some) conservatives want to live in, so long as it's not their child the state is making decisions about. Their child is their property. But those other people? Sure, let the state control those people and their kids, that's absolutely fine.
ETA: Especially, y'all should look at the testimony of the so-called experts who supported the ban on medical care for trans kids. Those start on page 56 of the transcript.
6 comments:
Thank God.
Donating to ACLU today! Great idea! (Donated to Donors Choose in honor of Elon Musks's ban on the word "cis" yesterday. Also got some pride flags up on our lawn after the HOA told us flags aren't signs and thus anyone can fly whatever they want, but sadly they came in the mail literally the day after the house next door to us was sold-- so the new owners probably got the trump flag kitty corner from us, but nothing to counter it. I hope they don't have a loud dog.)
My kid (and I!) were so pleased and relieved.
We have someone flying a Trump flag on the next block. Ugh!
This is so great - the contrast between the Plaintiffs’ experts and the State’s is hilarious! Thank you for posting this. (I’m the parent of a trans kid about the same age as yours, and a clinical psychologist who works with transgender people in New Zealand, so I find your posts on this topic very interesting)
Hi, Aurora! Welcome to the blog!
Are things better for trans people in NZ?
Thanks for the welcome, I am such a lurker! Have been reading for ages but I’m terrible at commenting.
I guess things are very different in different states in the US, but I would say overall yes, things are better here. We don’t seem to have the same problems with right-wing legislators trying to pass horrible bills, or the level of “christian” religious fundamentalism that you have there. I would say even our conservative political party is fairly liberal in many domains by US standards, as are New Zealanders as a society.
In terms of access to care, it can vary a bit by your area (what we call the postcode (zipcode) lottery). We have a publicly funded health system, which has just started to be reformed in the last couple of years to reduce that problem, but it will take a while. In my area, access to hormones is relatively easy and free-minimal cost, but the waiting lists for surgery are quite long, up to 2 years for chest, and up to a decade for genital surgery due to lack of experienced providers. We actually only have one person who does genital surgery in the country! Most people in NZ do not have private health insurance, and a lot of policies would exclude gender affirming surgery even if there were providers available. So that’s not so great.
Here in Arkansas, we have two clinics that provide care for trans people, and a couple of surgeons who will do the work. My health insurance covers the clinics, but not the surgery. We had to pay out of pocket for that (chest surgery). That was just over six thousand dollars, and he had to wait nearly four years for it, mostly because we didn't have the money. But even after we had the money, it was another year of waiting for his surgery. Still, he's very happy with it.
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