These anti-transition laws are illegal, immoral, and ignorant

I have some friends who are parents of transgender children. It is rarely an easy path. The development of gender dysphoria – a medical condition in which a person’s acute sense of gender differs from one’s assigned sex – is often a complex process. Before it was identified, many of my friends’ children struggled and were diagnosed with many other disorders before doctors and psychiatrists studied gender. Sometimes kids speak up for themselves. Sometimes they are heard, sometimes not.

So to finally get that Diagnosing gender dysphoria, for my friends anyway, it’s an occasion for fun and relief. And when interventions — hormones, hormone blockers, even (infrequently) surgery — work, it’s almost like a miracle. Not surprisingly, studies show that receiving sex-identified care reduces suicide and depression in adolescents. Transgender kids are transgender kids (and non-binary kids are non-binary kids, etc.), and, thank God, we now have ways to help them. live as they are.

I wonder if there are any Republican legislators in Idaho, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and other states currently ban health care for transgender people who have ever met anyone who is transgender, or anyone whose child is transgender. I understand that the latest series of horrifying anti-transgender legislation and the latest anti-gay legislation is primarily meant as a target for self-styled religious conservatives who make up the Republican Party’s largest base. I understand that they are part of a national campaign, not some grassroots movement. And I understand it’s an election year.

But if you know anyone who is transgender, these laws are unspeakably cruel, even if the hate is just for show.

Behold the disgusting new monstrosity of Idaho, House bill 675recently passed the Idaho State House and is likely to be signed into law.

In a largely under-reported counter-movement, the bill actually injects anti-transgender provisions into an existing law banning female genital mutilation, or FGM. FGM is a horrific, often non-consensual procedure that permanently distorts the genitals of young women and, by design, renders many incapable of experiencing sexual pleasure. It usually involves a total clitorisectomy, with absolutely no medical benefit, and essentially castration of the female.

It was this prohibition that the wise men of Idaho (mostly male anyway) “modified” to ban not only gender confirmation surgery (including mastectomy) for those under 18 but also hormones and hormone blockers. Needless to say, these interventions are carefully supervised medical procedures, fully authorized by every relevant medical and psychological association, and based on decades of scientific data. (Unlike FGM, their effects are often reversible, especially in the case of hormone therapy.)

Like Governor of Texas Greg Abbott’s executive order which seeks to classify transgender healthcare as a form of “child abuse”, HB 675 makes performing any of these procedures a felony, punishable by general imprisonment Dear. (It is inaccurately reported that HB 675 also makes it a felony to take a child out of state for hormones or surgery. In fact, that provision is a withholding from the FGM ban and as of writing. of the measure would not apply to transgender health care.)

The trouble with these laws is that, by seeking out an ignorant establishment that One America News resented, they have left scientific and judicial fact entirely behind.

First, being transgender is one thing. I can’t believe I really have to say it in 2022, but if you’re too lazy to watch transgender people tell their stories on Netflixtake it from me, yours White gay-friendly gay rabbi. Or if not me, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association. You know, people who do peer-reviewed studies to see if something is true.

The gender is between your ears; that’s how you view yourself. Sex is between your legs. (And other places, but you get the idea.)

Ironically, the Idaho bill is so silly that, technically, it doesn’t apply to anyone. It applies to acts committed “with the aim of attempting to change or confirm a child’s perception of his or her gender.” Well, guess what, Idaho Republican, gender confirmation surgery is not about gender perception. It’s about gender. So your stupid bill doesn’t apply to anyone.

I doubt that reasoning will make it to court, but it’s a prime example of why being completely ignorant is a poor legislative strategy.

Second, criminalizing a widely accepted form of medical treatment, chosen by informed parents in consultation with a physician, interferes with the institution in which conservatives are believed to be. interest: family. Like the governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson (no liberal bleeding heart) speak When he vetoed that state’s first attempt to ban sex-affirmative health care, such bans “create new standards of legal intervention for physicians and fathers.” mothers as they tackle some of the most complex and sensitive issues involving our youth… This would be — and is — a massive government overreach. “

That’s absolutely true – and it’s ironic. Bills like the HB 765 are completely anti-family. The state is telling parents how to raise their children, and threatening to send doctors to prison for helping them exercise those family rights.

Finally, being transgender is a legal “one thing”, especially since June 2020, when the conservative majority Supreme Court stated that against transgender discrimination as a form of sexism, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. That principle, codified in an opinion piece written by Justice Gorsuch, is still the law of the land and should be applied in these cases even more so in the context of employment. HB 765 is only for opprobrium, a widely recognized form of medical care used by a specific population. It criminalizes medical procedures that allow that population to live their lives to the fullest. It hits the heart of transgender identity, even when people try to deny it.

The truth is, I don’t care if these laws are just red meat for the Republican platform. They will harm real people, including the ones I love. I understand that changes in our society’s conception of gender can be a challenge for some. But do the damn job! Get to know someone transgender, read a book or watch a movie. See what transgender life really is like. Then stop trying to destroy them.