Utah Gov. Bans Life-Saving Care For Trans Youth Upon Advice Of Non-Existent 'Experts'

Because surely it was so pleasant there prior to this.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a couple of terrible bills on Saturday. The first will create a massive school voucher system, and the second is so truly crappy that no one is even talking about that.

Because the second bill Cox signed will outlaw life-saving gender-affirming care for trans youths.

While signing the bill, Governor Cox noted that it was a "terribly divisive issue" while adding that “experts, states and countries around the world are pausing these permanent and life-altering treatments.” The latter, of course, is explicitly untrue on a number of levels. Every possible relevant medical association has issued statements supporting gender-affirming care as the standard of care for trans youths — so no, "experts" are not pausing these treatments.

Courtesy of the Trans Health Project:  

•  American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 

•  American Academy of Dermatology 

•  American Academy of Family Physicians 

•  American Academy of Nursing 

•  American Academy of Pediatrics 

•  American Academy of Physician Assistants 

•  American College Health Association 

•  American College of Nurse-Midwives 

•  American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 

•  American College of Physicians 

•  American Counseling Association 

•  American Heart Association 

•  American Medical Association 

•  American Medical Student Association 

•  American Nurses Association 

•  American Osteopathic Association 

•  American Psychiatric Association 

•  American Psychological Association 

•  American Public Health Association 

•  American Society of Plastic Surgeons 

•  Endocrine Society 

•  GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality 

•  National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health 

•  National Association of Social Workers 

•  National Commission on Correctional Health Care 

•  Pediatric Endocrine Society 

•  Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine 

•  World Medical Association 

•  World Professional Association for Transgender Health 

It is worth noting that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints is still quite active in Utah and was probably marrying some preteens off to some old men as he signed this.

Additionally, many of the treatments are not permanent and those that are permanent are not being doled out willy nilly to anyone who asks for them. It often takes years and is approached by doctors with far more seriousness than when teenage cis girls wish to get breast implants, which this law makes clear will still be perfectly legal. 

“While we understand our words will be of little comfort to those who disagree with us,” Cox said in an entirely disingenuous statement released on Saturday, “we sincerely hope that we can treat our transgender families with more love and respect as we work to better understand the science and consequences behind these procedures.”

This would have been entirely possible for Cox to do before signing this bill, as the science behind these procedures is well understood and has been in use for decade, and study after study has shown that denying gender-affirming care to trans youths is severely detrimental if not dangerous to their mental health. Indeed, these studies have frequently shown a connection between being denied gender-affirming care and suicidality. So as sweetly as he wants to put it, Spencer Cox is still saying that he would rather these teenagers commit suicide than get the care that actual experts believe would be most beneficial for them.

Source: Real Housewives of Salt Lake City 

These laws have nothing to do with what is best for trans youths and everything to do with adults who want to believe that if they just ignore them, transgender people will go away and this will all stop being a thing. Given that this did not occur over the many decades when trans people were ignored and continued to exist despite this, that seems pretty unlikely.

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