Access To Gender-Affirming Care: How Transgender Youth Learn To Grow Up In The Divisive Litigation Of Their Bodily Autonomy
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What is Gender-Affirming Care?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines gender-affirming care as
"...a supportive form of healthcare. It consists of an array of services that may include medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people" (1).
Although this model of care is almost exclusively used in context with transgender and nonbinary people, the term "gender-affirming care" wasn't popularized until 2010 (Schall). Thus, "gender-affirming care" has been used as a treatment plan for cis people for years, it has just gone by many different names. From the Hasting Center, Theodore Schall and Jacob Moses report the disparities in contemporary health policy for cis and trans patients, and state,
"From another perspective, viewing such care as a conceptual category of analysis can illuminate how gender affirmation as a therapeutic and social goal has been an important part of advocating for (and critiquing) interventions like reconstructive breast surgery and testicular implants, which are not therapies restricted to trans patients. This latter perspective can also open a view on the social and political disparities in how trans and cis gender affirmations have been treated. We stress that reconstructive breast surgeries and testicular implants are gender-affirming interventions—rather than interventions provided through a generic form of respect for persons—because gender is a morally significant, social category that shapes how individuals regard themselves and understand each other. When forms of treatment that allow cisgender people to live authentically in their gender are viewed as in act gender-affirming care, it is possible to make clear comparisons with gender-affirming care that is afforded to transgender people, as all this care belongs to the same conceptual category" (19).
The Intersection of Gender Identity and Gender-Affirming Care:
While some people are born into cisgender bodies (where your gender identity aligns with your sex assigned at birth), others are born into transgender bodies (where your gender identity does not align with your sex assigned at birth). Being "cis" or "trans" are both real and naturally occurring identities. Just as cisgender people use gender-affirming care, for example, reconstructive breast surgeries, transgender people also utilize gender-affirming care, like pharmaceutical medication for the affirmation and expression of gender identity, for example. Doctors Matouk and Wald of Columbia University express their experience with and research of models of gender-affirming care, and state,
"Research demonstrates that gender-affirming care—a medical and psychosocial health care designed to affirm individuals' gender identities—greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents...The gender-affirming model of care affirms diversity in gender identity and assists individuals in defining, exploring, and actualizing their gender identity, allowing for exploration without judgments or assumptions. This does not mean that all youth need to undergo medical transition; indeed, this is often not the case. Gender-affirming care is highly individualized and focuses on the needs of each individual by including psychoeducation about gender and sexuality (appropriate to age and developmental level), parental and family support, social interventions, and gender-affirming medical interventions" (1).
Why Everyone Should Care:
In 2022, when surveying LGBTQ+ youth mental health, the Trevor Project found that
"...45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth" (1).
Key factors that have affected LGBTQ youth mental health are reported as minority stress, rejection/lack of social support, physical harm/bullying, discrimination, and conversion therapy (Facts about LGBTQ youth suicide). Given the copious number of organizations funding the resources to support this population, huge successes have been accomplished in recent years, yet there will always be folks that strive to keep transgender youth centered within political debates, rendering them hyper-visible and subject to media-influenced critique. This is a prevailing issue that has affected, and will continue to affect, tens of thousands of people. Over half of trans and nonbinary youth have seriously considered attempting suicide within the last year, and in order to bring this statistic down, we all have an obligation to create a landscape where LGBTQ youth are accepted and safe.
Minnesota State Legislature
"A law of another state that authorizes a state agency to remove a child from the child's parent or guardian because the parent or guardian allowed the child to receive gender-affirming health care, as defined in section 543.23, paragraph (b), is against the public policy of this state and must not be enforced or applied in a case pending in a court in this state. A court order for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child's parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state must not be enforced in this state" (1).
House File 2280This bill updates terminology by adding and defining "gender identity".
