The Attack on Gender-Affirming Medical Care

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Across the United States, conservative politicians are leading a backlash against L.G.B.T.Q. identity, framing legal restrictions as protection of children. Several states have introduced laws to ban medical treatments known as gender-affirming care—including hormones and puberty blockers—prescribed to adolescents. Major medical organizations have approved the treatments, but Rachel Monroe, who has been following efforts to ban gender-affirming care in Texas, found that doctors wouldn’t speak out about the political furor because the resulting attention could endanger themselves, their clinics, and their patients. One specialist, however, was willing to go on the record: Dr. Gina Sequeira, a co-director of the Gender Clinic at Seattle Children’s. “I was growing so frustrated seeing the narrative around gender-affirming care provision for youth so full of misinformation and so full of blatant falsehoods that I couldn't in good conscience continue to stay quiet,” Sequeira told her. Doctors cite a body of data that gender-affirming care reduces the risk of suicide, which is high among trans youth. Sequeira’s Seattle clinic has been fielding calls from Texas families looking to relocate if the proposed ban in Texas prevents their children from accessing care. “If we were to stop care, I would be afraid that our child wouldn’t survive,” the mother of a trans girl told Monroe. “There’s no question that she’s not safe to herself.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:12.3	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:16.0	In many parts of this country, we're seeing a backlash against LGBTQ people like nothing
0:22.0	in recent memory.
0:24.1	In Florida, the bill infamously dubbed Don't Say Gay tries to prevent teaching about gender
0:29.7	and sexual identity for young kids in school, and the effect may be much broader than that.
0:36.2	The state of Alabama has banned doctors from providing what's known as gender-affirming
0:40.1	care to children, making that a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
0:46.2	A judge just put on hold parts of that law, but similar measures have been proposed in
0:50.7	many states, including Texas.
0:53.9	So in Texas's last legislative session, there was an attempt to criminalize gender-affirming
0:59.2	care for children, but that effort failed.
1:02.8	Rachel Monroe is based in Texas, and she reports from around the Southwest.
1:08.0	It seemed like that was the end of it for at least the short term, but then the governor
1:13.1	and the attorney general of the state issued a legal opinion earlier this year that classified
1:20.4	gender-affirming care as child abuse.
1:24.0	That has faced a bunch of legal challenges.
1:26.7	It's working its way through the courts, and it is at the moment on hold, but the general
1:32.6	expectation is that that bill that failed in the last session, and when that criminalized
1:38.1	gender-affirming care, we're going to see that come back in the next legislative session,
1:43.6	and at this time, there's a much stronger chance that it'll pass.
1:50.4	Measures like these in Texas and elsewhere are generally framed as a measure to protect
	...

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