Crypto News: Trans Youth Face Loss of Critical Healthcare

Hi, it's Fiona in New York. Puberty blockers and hormone therapies — just some of the methods used to treat gender dysphoria — have been subject to relentless political attacks across the country. But first...

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Doctors in Florida who prescribe gender-affirming treatments to young people could lose their licenses because of a new rule banning this care for transgender youth, which went into effect earlier this month.

Some families are planning to leave the state in light of this ruling, according to Nikole Parker, director of transgender equality with Equality Florida. Other families, she says in an email, are even considering buying hormone therapies for their children on the black market.

Florida's bill is just one example of an alarming trend of new anti-LGBTQ legislation. This legislative year alone, at least 117 bills have targeted access to health care for transgender people, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union. In the 2022 state legislative year, a Bloomberg analysis showed that 60% of all proposed LGBTQ-health-related bills aimed to ban or limit transgender-related health care.

Access to gender-affirming care can save lives. Nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary youth have attempted suicide, according to a 2022 survey by advocacy group the Trevor Project. Gender-affirming care at an early stage is crucial to the overall health and wellbeing of transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, US government health officials say.

"The constant attacks on the transgender community are really hard to digest, especially as a transgender person myself," Parker says. "We are human beings who deserve respect and dignity like anybody else."

Florida's health department says there is a lack of conclusive evidence for treating gender dysphoria in children and adolescents. However, scientists, medical experts and doctors who work with trans people every day say this is simply not true, says Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute.

The arguments against this critical care, he says, mostly come from a relatively small group of conservative lawmakers and lawyers.

"It's settled medical opinion, and has been for decades," Baker says. "We don't want politicians making our healthcare decisions for us." — Fiona Rutherford

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