By Federica Lombardi
The T in LGBTQ+ stands for every person who knows that the body they were given at birth is not the right one, because in their inner self they have always felt the opposite.
In case and when a trans person decides to undergo a physical transition, it is everyone's duty to ensure them a safe and affordable journey.
This society and the health care system of many countries all around the world do not guarantee it, even in the most developed ones such as the USA. This year will probably pass into the annals of history for the huge number of bills against trans youth, just in the first four months more than one hundred bills have been introduced by thirty three different states all across the USA. As of April 12, according to Human Rights Campaign, 58 were bathrooms/locker rooms and youth sports bans, instead the bans/restrictions on transgender medical care amounted to 29; in the last six years such high numbers were never hit.
Right now the states that signed those bills into law are Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia. Arkansas was the first state to forbid physicians from providing gender-affirming treatment to transgender people under the age of eighteen; initially Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill, but after a few days the veto was overridden. This decision is extremely risky and endangers the life of hundreds (or probably thousands) of trans adolescents, who will not be able to access the so-called “puberty blockers”, fundamental for a kid who already suffers from gender dysphoria. In case physicians prescribe any cross-gender health therapy, they encounter legal consequences and even lose their medical license.
On May 18, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the umpteenth discriminatory legislation of 2021 that, as the one passed in Arkansas the previous month, prevents trans adolescents from accessing cross-gender treatments. Furthermore the Southeastern state’s Governor has already signed two laws concerning bathroom bans: the “Student Bathroom Bill”, that deprive people of the possibility to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity, and the “Business Bathroom Bill”, that imposes every business, which allows transgender people to use the restrooms consistent with their gender identity, to expose a sign to warn cisgender customers of the probable presence of a trans person.
In late April, West Virginia Governor signed an anti-trans bill into law, that as of that moment prevented trans girls and women from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity at an elementary, secondary and post-secondary level. This is not the first state starting such a policy against trans athletes, especially women, as a matter of fact it is believed that since trans women were born in a male body they are stronger, faster and have all the physical qualities typical of a man, when, especially if that person was subjected to puberty blockers, it is actually not true. In addition this belief is absolutely baseless, because there is no evidence of the winning of a trans female athlete over the other competitors who were biologically women.
These bills are the perfect example of how huge transphobia is and underlines that still today, in 2021, it is so difficult for people to respect trans people and consider them as anyone else.
The main consequence, though, is the enormous impact that these bills will have on trans kids and adolescents; they already are a very vulnerable category, at the point that in a report produced by MAP in 2017 it was declared that 75% of trans pupils felt unsafe in school, additionally to the greater probability to be verbally or physically harassed by classmates. Bathroom bans produce significant effects, indeed MAP reported that 70% of trans kids avoid going to the bathrooms because 60% of them are forced to use a bathroom not consistent with their gender. Lots of trans kids in school eat and drink less in order to not feel the need to use the restroom, this is really harmful and can affect their health, pediatricians said.
Trans youth are also more likely to be diagnosed with depression disorder and the possibility increases when they are not under hormonal treatments. In 2019 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) News reported that transgender suicide rates are a lot higher than the national average, especially considering their cisgender peers.
There are so many stories of trans kids who killed themselves because they were not given the possibility to live in the body they felt theirs and were not accepted by this society.
Everyone deserves to be respected regardless of how they identify themselves, because pretending to be someone else is just self destructive.
No one has the right to deprive someone else of theirs, so don’t let this happen again.
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