WHAT’S NEXT FOR GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTH CARE BANS IN IDAHO

Community support and possible legal challenges for HB 71

Kiryn Willett | News Reporter | news@stumedia.boisestate.edu

On April 6, Gov. Brad Little signed HB 71 into law, a bill banning gender-affirming health care for minors. The bill will take effect on Jan 1, 2024, leaving many trans youth wondering, “What now?”

According to Javier Smith, a board member at the Idaho Community Center, despite the fact that the law will not go into effect until next year, many health care providers may stop providing treatment immediately to avoid potential legal challenges. Despite this, Smith believes the fight for access to health care for trans youth isn’t over.

“Keep in mind that it’s been signed into law, but it’s going to be challenged in court,” Smith said. “This is gonna get sued because it can be easily challenged constitutionally. So in that respect, I think we will probably win in the courts.”

However, Smith notes that this legislation, and other anti-trans bills, push Idaho further into the “Spiral of Injustice” — a concept developed by the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights to illustrate the escalation from harmful rhetoric to eradication during the Holocaust. Since its development, human rights activists have applied the concept to other social justice issues.

Smith notes that the harmful rhetoric defining trans people as “the other” has now escalated to the third level on the spiral: discrimination. According to the spiral of injustice theory, discrimination emboldens acts of violence against the group defined as “the other.” Transgender individuals already face higher mortality rates than their cisgendered counterparts, and as the wave of anti-trans legislation continues, violence toward the trans community will likely increase.

In the meantime, local organizations such as the Idaho Community Center and Boise Trans Collective are working to offer support to trans Idahoans. The Community Center has a queer youth group where young queer kids can come and speak about their experiences and seek support from their peers.

The Boise Trans Collective is a “grassroots mutual aid group” according to their founder, Ezra Howell.

“We’re here to just help out the local trans community. Instead of donating to other organizations or foundations people can come to us with their needs,” Howell said. “And then we’ve also run shows where we do directly benefit someone.”

The Boise Trans Collective raised over $500 for a local community member’s surgery, and over $400 for another person’s hormone therapy.

According to Peyton Shollenbarger, cochair of the Boise Trans Collective (BTC), the Boise Trans Collective has given out over $4,700 dollars to local community members seeking aid. The BTC aims to assist the trans community in any way possible. They provide funds to help gain access to gender-affirming care for those over 18, and help people seeking to leave the state in light of the new bill.

The BTC hosts multiple community and fundraising events for the local trans community. They recently hosted a trans clothing drive on April 16 and have hosted several concerts to fundraise. They also hope to host an art show in the future.

One of their most recent fundraising events was a concert where local bands Leaway and Fleeting Confidence played, along with Holy Pinto, a band from Milwaukee.

All three bands stated they wanted to work with BTC because they care about the cause.

“They’re devastated by what’s been going on. So I think it’s really important for organizations like this to host stuff like this to create safe spaces for trans kids,” said Randy McCurdy, a Boise State student and the vocalist and guitarist for Leaway.

BANNING ACCESS TO GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE HAS DEVASTATING EFFECTS

Why gender-affirming care is important and how this affects the youth

Kiyah Henson | Opinion Editor | opinion@stumedia.boisestate.edu

Despite numerous phone calls pleading for a veto on the bill, Idaho Gov. Brad Little chose to sign on House Bill 71. House Bill 71 takes effect Jan. 1, 2024, and will stand as a block for transgender youth in accessing puberty blockers, hormones and other gender-affirming surgeries in Idaho. It will also make providing those medical treatments a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Within the last year, there have been multiple attempts to ban and criminalize gender-affirming treatments for transgender and nonbinary youth under 18 throughout the nation.

According to Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 2022 was a record-breaking year for this type of legislation.

Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah have all passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for minors.

ABC News states that along with this, 19 other states are considering or have introduced bills that would similarly restrict this kind of medical care for trans youth.

According to the World Health Organization, gender-affirming care encompasses a range of social, psychological and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth.

This could include things like hormone therapy, puberty blockers, speech therapy, psychiatric services and primary care. Having access to gender-affirming care is incredibly important for those who need it, especially for young people.

The Association of American Medical Colleges states that many studies have found that transgender youth are more likely to suffer from emotional distress and depression compared to others their age.

They are also are more likely to experience bullying and other forms of violence, and to harm themselves or attempt suicide.

In an article by Timothy Smith of the American Medical Association, he explains a study in which researchers investigated changes in mental health over the first 12 months of receiving gender-affirming care.

More specifically, these researchers were curious in examining the changes in depression, anxiety and suicidality in association with starting puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones.

The results showed that out of 100 transgender and nonbinary youth, those who received gender-affirming medications had a 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality over those first 12 months, compared with youth who did not get those medications.

Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, Idaho director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, says that Gov. Little’s decision to sign the bill into law ignores evidence from multiple medical authorities asserting that gender-affirming care is essential for some youth.

She’s not alone in her stance against this bill’s passing.

Idaho Democratic Party Chair Lauren Necochea said in a press release that Gov. Little’s decision criminalizes treatments proven to reduce suicidality, anxiety and depression among transgender youth.

“This legislation harms our vulnerable kids the most,” Necochea said. “It also hurts entire communities. Our friends and neighbors will be driven out of state. The continued criminalization of standard care endorsed by major medical associations will push more doctors to leave Idaho.”

Gender-affirming care saves lives, and criminalizing it will only endanger the mental health and wellbeing of transgender and nonbinary youth.

Banning the right for parents to allow their children to receive this care and criminalizing medical professionals for doing their jobs is atrocious.

I hope that from legal challenges, the law is overturned before it is able to take effect next year, as this bill will do more harm than it ever would good.

Banning Books Is A Bad Idea

We need to protect the library and continue to fight restrictions

In March, the Ada County Commissioners denied a petition to dissolve the Meridian Library District.

The group who petitioned to dissolve the library district, Concerned Citizens of Meridian, presented a list of over 50 books containing material that they deemed harmful to minors.

Justifications presented for restricting these books included LGBTQIA+ content, promoting anti-police views, discussing gender identity and sex education, promoting Islam and bias against male students.

There have been many requests across the nation to ban books for minors based on content that tackles issues like racism or LGBTQIA+ stories.

According to PEN America, between July 2021 to July 2022, the state of Texas had 751-1,000 book bans, Florida had 501-750, Tennessee and Pennsylvania had 251-500, while Idaho had 26-50 bans.

Within the 1,648 books banned during this time, PEN America states that 41% contain LGBTQ+ themes or had LGBTQ+ protagonists and characters, 21% addressed issues of race and racism, 22% contained sexual content including sexual assault, abortion, puberty, sex, or relationships, and 4% included characters and stories that reflect religious minorities.

It’s very clear that the groups pushing to ban books with these themes and ideas are attempting to prevent minors from exploring content outside of what they believe in or support directly.

Maoria Kirker, lead of the Teaching and Learning Team at George Mason University Libraries, stated that books give students the ability to learn about the world and experience diverse characters and points of view.

Many minors aren’t able to travel outside of their local community, so reading stories is important in their development of building empathy and is essential to critical thinking when it comes to looking at history, ideas and other concepts from more than one perspective.

“Banning books also has the potential to create significant gaps in knowledge for young learners,” Kirker said in an interview with George Mason University.

Kirker also explained that banning books creates a ripple effect and that even though families are allowed to restrict what their own children read, they shouldn’t be able to enforce that on other families as banning books takes away the opportunity from other children.

I believe many people underestimate what children and teenagers are able to consume and understand. Reading stories that are different from our own is critical in learning to accept others and being open to ideas and concepts that are foreign.

Many children and teens may seek out certain books to find validation in themselves and have representation that they identify with.

As an example, banning LGBTQIA+ stories simply for having LGBTQIA+ content feeds into the narrative that being a part of the community is bad or inappropriate when that is far from the truth.

Books should not be banned strictly because a certain group of individuals finds them harmful. Everyone has differing views, and one person’s thoughts shouldn’t dictate what another person is allowed to do or, in this case, read.

Approximately 500 people showed up to testify on Monday, March 20, during the second public hearing on the petition to dissolve the Meridian Library District.

Though the vote from the Ada County Commissioners was unanimous, I expect this will not be the last time a group will come forward attempting to ban books at libraries or in Idaho schools.

The community must continue to stick together to protect these books as they are extremely valuable to the development of young children.