Youth gender-affirming care ban passed

IN Senate Bill 480 was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcolmb on April 5 and takes effect July 1

By Olivia Cameron MANAGING EDITOR

April 5, 2023. Senate Bill 480 prohibits medical professionals from “knowingly providing gender transition procedures to an individual who is less than 18 years of age” and “aiding or abetting another physician or practitioner in the provision of gender transition procedures to a minor.” The law, authored by Republican Sens. Tyler Johnson, Ed Charbonneau and Gary Byrne, takes effect on July 1, 2023.

University of Indianapolis Assistant Professor of Sociology Elizabeth Ziff said that “gender-affirming care” is an umbrella term for a variety of practices utilized by an individual to align their physicality with the gender that they identify with. These practices include hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries to augment the body, she said.

According to Ziff, there are currently providers in Indiana who offer genderaffirming care services, but they are not easy to access. Finding a provider in one’s insurance network, long waiting lists and socioeconomic barriers can make accessing care more difficult, she said. Ziff said the new law will not only prohibit minors from accessing gender-affirming medical care but end access for minors already receiving care, as well.

“Let's say you are maybe on hormoneblocking therapy or are on some type of hormone replacement therapy, I believe the stipulation is that you have six months until you have to stop this, once the law goes into effect,” Ziff said. “... So by December if you are somebody who is already receiving that care, your doctor is supposed to stop that.”

Sophomore English major Danni Conn came out as a transgender male in 2019. Conn said that after coming out, he began starting the process of getting his name changed and taking testosterone shots. Starting the transitioning process was difficult, but it saved his life and he was able to get through it with support from his mom and sister, he said.

“It [transitioning] definitely saved my life and helped me just be so much more comfortable, not only in my body but just in society, itself,” Conn said. “Because getting misgendered and everything is definitely not fun to go through… My mom's always been my backbone, she's always been my number-one supporter. It's really always been her and my sister. I'm just very grateful that I had them in my life. And even when I was going through hard times mentally and then through the transitioning process, I was able to have them be there for me.”

Conn said he felt scared for his younger trans friends when he heard about SB 480. He has friends who have begun receiving gender-affirming medical care and now will have it taken away from them. According to Conn, not receiving this care can cause depressive thoughts, but other trans youth seeing they have others who are there for them helps a lot.

“I worry about the lives of the trans youth a lot, especially now, with this bill being passed and signed,” Conn said. “So I'm just making sure that I'm reaching out to them and letting them know that it's a bump in your process, but there's bumps in all processes. Even before this, I had many bumps in my process and in my journey, but there are things that you have to overcome. And I think that that's something: them knowing that they have people there for them, and they have people there to support them. I definitely think that that helps them know that their life still has meaning, even though the one thing that's helping them the most is being taken away from them.”

Junior art major Cj Sparks identifies as genderfluid. For them, genderaffirming care is seeing a therapist. Their therapist is able to help them in multiple ways, including talking through gender dysphoria and exploring options for medical care, such as testosterone and surgery.

“I've been able to talk through if I want to use this name, have my therapist be the first person to use that and see if it feels comfortable [or be the] first person to use a certain pronoun, to talk through the pros and cons of different physical transition things, how to approach coming out or talking about different things with parents or siblings or friends, dealing with repercussions of those things,” Sparks said. “And having someone who is always going to be on my side in the way that they're going to be supportive, it's definitely very helpful.”

Sparks said that while they have not pursued medical care for physical transition, they may still want to seek medical gender-affirming care in the future. They said that it is scary to see that even trans adults in other states are having their rights questioned. According to Sparks, only negative outcomes can result from the ban on gender-affirming care for minors in Indiana.

“If I—in the state that I was in as a minor seeking gender-affirming care —if I had not been able to access that [therapy], I may not be here today,” Sparks said. “And I believe that will be the case for many minors, and I hope that they are able to access some kind of mental health care, even if it's not for the things that they're seeking.”

According to Ziff, the ban will be detrimental for trans youth, as genderaffirming care improves mental health and lowers incidences of self-harm. Communities in Indiana will be negatively affected as a whole, she said.

“Laws are important because of what they signal as far as values, and this is a huge signal that essentially transgender people don't belong,” Ziff said. “I would not be surprised if we see rises in incidences of things like hate crimes and other types of issues like that. You are probably going to see some people choosing to leave the state because they cannot access the care.”

Holcomb said in a statement that gender-affirming medical care should occur in adulthood. Ziff said this statement seems disingenuous to her, as many advocates and activists believe that