Cronkite school of journalism at
Arizona state university.
>> Across the country a least
150 bills of been filed by
Republican legislators targeting
transgender Americans this year.
Roughly 100 specifically
restrict doctors and other
providers from offering
transition related health care
for minors even when their
parents approve.
Liam brangham takes a look at
where these bills are being
proposed and the impact they
could have.
>> Yesterday Mississippi's
Republican governor signed a law
banning puberty blockers,
hormone therapy and other gender
affirming care for minors.
It is the third state this year
to legalize restrictions on
transgender health care and
similar bands are moving quickly
through Tennessee and Indiana.
We will talk with someone who
tracks all of these new laws.
But first let's hear from some
parents whose children are most
impacted.
>> When our son was growing up
he was an active kid.
Like to go play basketball, ride
his bike, do all kinds of things
outside.
And then as he grew near
adolescence and puberty things
got more distressing.
He began to have lots of
anxiety, severe depression.
He began to self-harm.
He was hospitalized for suicidal
ideation.
Times were tough for a while.
A little bit later as 18 he
realized what had been nagging
at him all this time was he was
not a girl as we thought.
He was really a boy.
>> Our daughter is 10 years old.
She started letting us know she
was transgender really before
she could even speak.
She would do things like where
her sister's clothes, pretend
that tells where her long hair
and when she was about three
years old she started to
withdraw and become depressed so
we started doing some research.
We talked to her pediatrician.
For us gender affirming care so
far has been a social transition
using the correct pronouns,
letting her grow her hair long,
letting her pick her clothes
from the girls section.
>> When my son transitioned at
the age of seven, it was not
something that was particularly
eventful.
It involved him changing his
name, changing his pronouns.
Suddenly when I went to target
instead of going to the girls
section I went to the boys
section.
>> It is just so heart wrenching
as a parent to see your kid in
such agony and hopelessness.
It was through gender affirming
care with good doctors and
mental health professionals that
he saw hope.
>> As soon as we started
affirming her as a girl her
mental health increased greatly.
We do notice with the onset of
puberty coming anytime now her
distress rises greatly.
>> As he gets older, what we are
looking at is first puberty
blockers.
.
Medication that would prevent
puberty from happening in the
natural course at its core
really Tobias time.
What we don't want is to have
unnecessary and sometimes
invasive surgeries.
We want to be able to push a
pause button to make sure we are
not making these decisions at
young ages, at ages like 11, 12,
13.
>> It has been really tough on
us as a family.
The idea that the state of
Indiana wants to take away our
rights as parents to make
medical decisions for our kid
with our doctors and -- it is
really painful.
>> Here comes the legislature
saying your child has been
living as a girl for seven years
but they cannot go on puberty
blockers when they hit puberty
because we think it is best they
do not.
>> When you have health care
professionals who are working
with you who have gotten to know
you who have been talking about
plans months and years out
understanding what that is going
to look like and helping you to
plan that road ahead to know
what it is you are looking
towards, to think you could then
lose that and that the
government could be telling you
they know better than this
entire team of people to stop
you from accessing lifesaving
medical care, that itself is
terrifying.
>> Those families are clearly
watching these laws and they are
deeply concerned with what they
might mean for their children.
For more on what the various
states are doing I am joined by
a researcher who tracks
transgender legislation around
the country and advocates for
trans rights.
Thank you so much for being
here.
There are so many states that
are proposing these different
kinds of laws.
Oddly speaking, can you explain
-- broadly speaking, what are
these laws generally trying to
target?
>> Yes, thank you for having me
on.
There are over 400 those I am
tracking that target the lgbtq
community, primarily the trans
community.
A good third of them target the
medical care of transgender
youth and in some cases
transgender adults.
They will ban things like
puberty blockers, hormone
therapy and surgery from this
population.
They will tell doctors precisely
how they should medically
Dechant's a the transgender
youth by withdrawing them from
their medication.
That is what I am tracking.
>> Sum of these have passed
into law.
Some of these are just on at the
legislature.
What are the penalties for
people who break these laws?
>> They tend to vary.
In some cases it is a revoking
of licensor.
Some cases they have floated
child abuse provisions.
In Texas last year whenever
governor Greg Abbott began
investigating the parents of
trans teens for child abuse.
We have a broad range for the
way the community is targeted by
legislation.
>> We should say for the record
this is care that is widely
accepted by most major medical
organizations.
Pediatric organizations that
study this.
What are the arguments these
legislators are making as to why
they want to pass these bans?
>> The arguments I tend to see
center around the kids are too
young to choose and things like
that.
They tend to float surgery and
we often hear a lot about
transgender surgeries done on
minors.
There is often little time spent
by proponents of the legislation
on puberty blockers and hormone
therapies.
I believe that is intentional.
Surgeries are more extreme and
easier to sell then puberty
blockers and hormone therapies.
>> One of my colleagues spoke
with a legislator in Tennessee,
speaker of the house Cameron
sexton.
He supports one of these laws
and I want to play a clip on
what he has to say.
He equates gender reassignment
surgery with child abuse and
argues people who undergo that
surgery, 80% of them regret it.
Here's more of what he had to
say.
>> There is a difference between
a child younger than 18 making
that decision compared to
someone who is an adult making
that decision.
We are going to err on the side
of saying if that is what you
want to do, go at it.
As a child, you are telling me a
10, 11, 12 real child absolutely
knows what gender they want to
be.
That decision should be left
later in adult life.
>> What do you make of that
argument?
>> The idea that transgender
youth are being treated
abusively by their parents I
think stands in stark reality to
some of the clips you played
earlier as well as the testimony
I have seen of these hearings.
I watched a testimony in
Nebraska where the mother of a
transgender teenager spoke about
how for years she was worried
she would come home and find her
child dead.
After allowing transitioned by
going through an intensive
medical process with therapists,
doctors over the course of a few
years she stated while pleading
for her medical care for her
child she went from having a
depressed suicidal teenage boy
to a happy thriving successful
teenage girl.
A daughter.
This particular representative
mention something like 80% of
people D transitioning and these
are the kinds of things we hear
that are not borne out by
reality.
These numbers are often based
off data that are decades-old
from in the 1980's and 90's.
Never transgender people could
not be in public.
We could not exist in public
safety and so yes of course,
rates of the transition were so
much higher because we were not
allowed to be our selves and the
idea that we would treat these
parents as abusers and take
their kids away from them is
heart wrenching.
>> Why do you think we are
seeing all of these laws across
the country?
>> There has been a sustained
fear campaign waged against the
transgender community and the
lgbtq community as a whole.
But the better part of two years
we have heard we are dangerous
around kids.
That children should not be
exposed to lgbtq people,
identities that were dangerous
in bathrooms.
I think this fear campaign has
been waged has gotten through
and it has been utilized in a
political matter.
It is unfortunate because it is
targeting families that clearly
care deeply about their kids
that are following the best
medical guidelines they know how
and are working with their care
teams, doctors and therapists
and seeing the results in their
kids.
Seeing the improved lives and
the ability of these kids to
express themselves and be
themselves.
>> Thank you so much for being
here.
>> Thank you for having me.