When people hear that we want hormones to be available for free and without regulation, one of the first concerns brought up is always "what about the kids?"
At its heart, the concern is this: what if a cisgender (non-transgender) child is given "cross-sex hormones"? In our opinion, this line of thought gives greater value to the lives (more specifically, the reproductive capacity) of a minority of essentially hypothetical cisgender youths than the millions of verifiably real transgender youths whose lives would be definitively improved and even saved by access to these medications. If the effects of hormones on a cisgender youth is so detrimental, why aren't you concerned about the effects of puberty in transgender youth?
Moreover, "detransition" is a tragedy for primarily one reason: the vast majority of the time, people who detransition do so either because they lost their health coverage, or because life as a trans person became so inhospitable that they were coerced back into the closet. In other words, despite the work of transphobes to suggest otherwise, most so-called desistors are transgender.
In short, our position is this: Regulation and gatekeeping harms substantially more lives than it protects. Indeed, we assert that gatekeeping actually has no interest in protecting cis people, but only in explicitly harming trans people; the narrative that youths are too immature to make life altering decisions is nothing short of concern trolling. 42% suicide rate is no accident, no coincidence, it is genocide. 99% of youths who take hormone blockers go on to take HRT. How many die because they couldn't access or afford care? How many survive but live with intense gender dysphoria? How many become targets of discrimination for being non-passing?
For a great many trans youth, the alternative to transition is death. Many of those who need HRT will try to acquire it whether it is legal for them to do so or not. Thus, if state legislators really have an interest in "protecting the kids," we would encourage them to make puberty blockers both legal and easily accessible.
Alexa Pantuck
Posted on April 21, 2021
At its heart, the concern is this: what if a cisgender (non-transgender) child is given "cross-sex hormones"?
In our opinion, this line of thought gives greater value to the lives (more specifically, the reproductive capacity) of a minority of essentially hypothetical cisgender youths than the millions of verifiably real transgender youths whose lives would be definitively improved and even saved by access to these medications. If the effects of hormones on a cisgender youth is so detrimental, why aren't you concerned about the effects of puberty in transgender youth?
Moreover, "detransition" is a tragedy for primarily one reason: the vast majority of the time, people who detransition do so either because they lost their health coverage, or because life as a trans person became so inhospitable that they were coerced back into the closet. In other words, despite the work of transphobes to suggest otherwise, most so-called desistors are transgender.
In short, our position is this:
Regulation and gatekeeping harms substantially more lives than it protects. Indeed, we assert that gatekeeping actually has no interest in protecting cis people, but only in explicitly harming trans people; the narrative that youths are too immature to make life altering decisions is nothing short of concern trolling. 42% suicide rate is no accident, no coincidence, it is genocide. 99% of youths who take hormone blockers go on to take HRT. How many die because they couldn't access or afford care? How many survive but live with intense gender dysphoria? How many become targets of discrimination for being non-passing?
For a great many trans youth, the alternative to transition is death. Many of those who need HRT will try to acquire it whether it is legal for them to do so or not. Thus, if state legislators really have an interest in "protecting the kids," we would encourage them to make puberty blockers both legal and easily accessible.