Health care for trans youth is becoming a core issue for Republican candidates

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Speaking of transgender girls playing women’s sports, Nikki Haley said during her months-long campaign:Women’s issues of our timeIn Iowa last week, Mike Pence said on the first day of his presidential campaign that he supported “radical gender ideology” and a nationwide ban on gender-positive medical care for transgender children.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promised to make Florida’s policy national. Among them are a series of laws restricting schools from talking about gender and sexuality, including pronouns. Former President Donald Trump, the current leader of the Republican presidential world, announced: campaign video It suggested that his campaign was a war against transgender identities.

In the Republican presidential primary, the way transgender youth are treated and accepted in schools is a central issue, drawing as much attention as inflation and security.

The issue is heating up among the party’s most ardent supporters, who see transgender policies as part of a bitter culture war over race and gender. But among most Americans, policies related to transgender children don’t rank high on the list of priorities heading to the polls. A recent survey found that the majority may be weary of public discussion on the subject, and a low percentage of people know transgender people personally.

For advocates of transgender children and adults, rhetoric and misinformation from the Republican arena has come from dozens of state legislatures that have enacted laws limiting which foster parents and health care providers can serve transgender children. further intensifies the chorus of hostility. In response to the policy, the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, “emergency” For LGBTQ+ Americans.

Republican candidates have been “radicalized” on the issue by conservative outlets such as Fox News and the Daily Wire, said Ari Drenen, LGBTQ+ program director at Media Matters, a progressive nonprofit that studies media. He said he was dealing with the electorate. Beneath the surface long-standing Well-funded campaign by Christians and social conservatives group Targets the use of LGBTQ+ rights, specifically the concept of parents and parental rights.

Many Americans say they don’t know transgender or nonbinary people, which creates vulnerability to misinformation, fear and hostile messages, Drenen argues.Estimate 1.6 percent of US adults They identify as transgender or non-binary, according to the Pew Research Center. Estimates of the number of Americans who know a transgender or nonbinary person vary. A Pew survey found that 44% of the general public said they knew a transgender person personally, and 20% said they knew a nonbinary person. However, a recent study by the nonprofit PRRI estimates these numbers to be much lower. A PRRI survey found that only 11 percent of Americans know someone who identifies as transgender or nonbinary.

“The lack of knowledge leaves a lot of room for disinformation to take root,” Drenen said. “Most of these people have very strong opinions about who it is to be transgender and how we deserve to live life, but they know among us Most of the time, I’ve never met anyone.”

The percentage of Republican lawmakers who believe the social acceptance of transgender people has gone “too far” has steadily increased since 2020. Washington Post analysis found. The most prominent Republican legislators across the board draw on these strong opinions in stump addresses that refer to medical and school policies regarding transgender children, or general rhetoric about gender roles and identity. Advocates for transgender children and adults claim they operate with misinformation and potentially harmful hostile rhetoric.

At least one candidate seemed surprised by how enthusiastically Republican rally attendees received these comments.

“It’s amazing how strongly people feel about it.” President Trump said In a weekend speech at the Republican convention in North Carolina. “People are like that when I talk about tax cuts,” he said, mimicking lethargic applause. “People go crazy when I talk about being trans. Five years ago, I didn’t know what it was.”

playing cards said in JanuaryWithin weeks of running for president for the third time, the United States, if re-elected, would punish doctors for providing gender-affirming medical care to people under the age of 18, and create federal law to block such medical care. He said he would use the power of agencies and law enforcement. He said the administration would ban any federal agency from promoting “the concept of sex and transsexuality at any age,” including adults, and urge public schools to teach students about the traditional roles of mothers and fathers. Stated.

DeSantis, who is seen as Trump’s strongest challenger, is leaning toward the transgender child policy he passed in Florida. “Florida has banned teachers from forcing students to choose pronouns,” DeSantis said during his speech. first official rally Last month, he received a standing ovation in Clive, Iowa. DeSantis also pointed to a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender children.

federal judge temporarily blocked Part of Florida’s new law bans transgender minors from taking puberty inhibitors, claiming ‘gender identity is real’ and ban ignores risk to patients are doing. The injunction applies only to the three children named in the lawsuit.

Republicans have had some success in revitalizing their support base on the issue by capitalizing on parents’ universal fears about their children in a post-pandemic America, said the director of government affairs at the Campaign for Human Rights. David Stacy said. “People are very uncertain about the challenges facing their schools, their communities and their children,” Stacey said. “Parents want to protect their children when they say they are threatened.”

At a recent CNN town hall, Pence said he supports a federal ban on gender-affirming medical care for people under the age of 18, arguing they are too young to make firm decisions about their identity and care. bottom.

Haley, a prominent candidate and only woman, has used the hashtag #FightForOurGirls to focus on including transgender girls in women’s sports. In a 2022 survey of transgender participation in school sports teams in Utah, Stacey found that only four children statewide participate in high school sports, while women’s sports He pointed out that only one person did.

“This is what it’s all about. Four kids trying to find friends and feeling like they’re part of something. So much fear and anger directed at so few people.” Very rarely,” said Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah. said when he refused the ban On the participation of transgender youth in sports.state legislature override his veto.

A few days ago, on her CNN Town Hall, Haley falsely linked a shocking rate of suicidal thoughts among teenage girls to the presence of transgender girls in some school locker rooms. When asked about similarly alarming high rates of suicidal ideation among transgender and nonbinary youth, especially those who report lacking social support from their families, Haley said: . You may have suicidal thoughts, but don’t make other children feel like they’re under that pressure. Haley said in a previous interview that she doesn’t support some gender-affirming treatments for children under the age of 18.

Debi Jackson, a Missouri transgender rights activist and mother of nonbinary children, said the increased attention from Republicans at the federal level was alarming. Jackson said the candidate’s comments about caring for transgender children do not reflect the reality of most families and downplay the ability of parents to make informed decisions for their children. said.

Ms. Jackson said her child had her first medical visit when she was four years old, and that visits in the years that followed equated to support and surveillance. At the time, Jackson identified as Christian and conservative. With puberty approaching, the family weighed their options and finally decided to treat puberty blockers. The treatment was an expensive treatment that took four years to pay off.

Jackson said the care her child received, and the care that families generally receive, was largely determined by the World Association of Transgender Health Professionals, an international association of more than 3,000 professionals, most of whom are medical professionals. (WPATH) has been carefully developed.of American Academy of Pediatrics It also supports gender-positive care.

Jackson said the decisions are best left to family members and professionals.

“I don’t want Mike Pence and all other politicians to go near the doctor’s office or doctor’s office,” Jackson said, adding new bans on transgender care and increasing financial and emotional stress. He added that the family is planning to leave Missouri because of this.

“None of us want to talk about the stress and trauma our children are going through right now. I want to show how the school system, the community as a whole, has embraced, loved and supported children.”

How the final Republican candidate will carry this issue into the 2024 general election is an open question.

Former New Hampshire legislator Lisa Bunker said, “The fact that transgender people exist has entered the American consciousness like never before in the last decade.” He said he couldn’t find words for the discomfort he was feeling. From the 1960s to his 70s, he struggled with his gender identity during his childhood and his teenage years.

Bunker recently co-authored a book with transgender teen Kai Shapley, which focused on the joys of being a child and the challenges Shapley faced trying to join her school’s cheer team. Bunker said he hoped articles like theirs would appeal to voters who “don’t readily embrace hate.”

“There is certainly information in there that will help us understand the transgender experience more fully,” she said. “And not everyone in the country needs to be a transgender zealot. We just need enough people to decide that this is not a scary issue and can be left alone without worrying about it. is.”