TheRainbowTimesMass.com • The Rainbow Times • 3
February 6, 2020 - March 4, 2020
U.S. legislation aims to dismantle access to health care, blockers for trans youth Contrary to what health experts in trans healthcare say, legislators continue to spread false statements to others Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. Some state have gone further than others, even making it a “felony to provide puberty blockers to minors, even though puberty usually occurs when a person is under the age of 18,” LGBTQ Nation reported (https://bit.ly/3b5wYc9). Regardless of what health experts and trans youth advocates have argued, Daw is still steadfast to introduce similar legislation in Utah. His sister, Christy Florence, who has a transgender husband and child penned an op-ed to the Salt Lake Tribune (https://bit.ly/2Sg7KPy) urging her brother to drop this legislation. “Leave the decisions of medical care to the parents and medical professionals,” Florence wrote. “Trust the experts. They know what they are doing. These families know their children and what is the very best for them.”
By: Audrey Cole TRT Reporter
IN THE LIMELIGHT
BOSTON—Nearly a dozen states have introduced bills to prevent trans youth from accessing health care and hormone blockers, a medically necessary yet reversible tool to affirm trans youth identity, according to some of the leading trans healthcare experts across the Commonwealth. “Puberty blockers are medications that temporarily put a puberty on pause,” said Dr. Jack Turban, resident physician in psychiatry at The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). “This is important because once the physical changes of puberty proceed, they are difficult if not impossible to reverse down the line. Putting them on hold allows transgender adolescents a reprieve from body dysphoria and provides them more time to make a thoughtful decision about what to do next.” Although many opponents of competent trans youth healthcare, such as State Rep. Brad Daw (RUtah), have argued that puberty blockers are “permanent.” The reality is, according to experts in this field, that they are not. “It is important to note that pubertal sup-
pression, with appropriate medical monitoring, is fully reversible,” said Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, senior author, Director of the National LGBT Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute and Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program. “It is a safe way
to mitigate negative health outcomes that can result from undergoing puberty that does not align with a transgender youth’s gender identity.” Bills to stop gender-affirming health care for minors have been introduced in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New
Mental health Trans youth that are provided puberty blockers have a significantly reduced risk of suicide and superior mental health outcomes, according to a study published (https://bit.ly/2v0xRSP) in the Official Journal of American Pediatrics. “Many transgender youth have a dra-
See Trans Youth On Page 12
