There’s more anti-trans rhetoric in the news these days. One of our major political parties has found it expedient to motivate their voters by stoking fears about trans people with crude insults and outright lies. In the long term this will backfire. Children raised to think trans people are predatory monsters will grow up, leave home, and eventually have a trans coworker or neighbor. They’ll have to square those fear-mongering stories and ugly insults from their parents with the ordinary, non-monstrous person in front of them.
For now, politicians and pundits are viciously and recklessly targeting a small, vulnerable minority, many of whom are children, with dehumanizing language and false accusations. I’m seeing the word “mutilation” used quite a bit to describe gender-affirming care. It’s flippant and cruel, in addition to being utterly untrue.
Some parents permit their cisgender teen daughters to access gender-affirming surgical care in the form of rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, or other cosmetic procedures intended to give a more feminine appearance. Many more parents permit cisgender girls to access gender-affirming body modification such as piercing their ears. We don’t see these permanent alterations to kids’ bodies as “mutilation” even though many would question the wisdom of, for instance, cosmetic surgery on a 16-year-old, and reasonable parents can disagree about whether and when to allow a child to get pierced ears.
Gender-affirming care for trans kids is almost entirely social support. With family support and informed consent, some trans kids get access to puberty blockers, which have few risks and virtually no lasting effects when discontinued. There is a robust body of research demonstrating the positive impacts of social transition and puberty blockers in reducing suicidal ideation, depression, and other serious mental health risks found at higher rates among trans youth than their cisgender peers. Very rarely, older trans teens can access hormone therapy. The consensus among healthcare professionals is that irreversible surgical procedures are most appropriate for individuals over 18 and require thorough informed consent. Those who insist they’re just trying to protect kids from “mutilation” can’t engage with this reality of gender-affirming care because they’d be immediately caught in a lie. I have never once met a person who was totally fine with allowing kids to explore their gender identity and transition socially but considered medical or surgical transition-related care “mutilation.”
Trans kids, like all kids, deserve dignity, respect, and privacy. I hope we can all see the cynical political exploitation of fears and ignorance about trans people for what it is. If someone is advocating for trans youth in good faith, they use respectful language to describe gender-affirming care. They inform themselves about standards of care. They listen to trans youth, their families, and healthcare experts rather than politicians.
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