Trans care debate influenced by misinformation, doctors say

[Lori Dee]

Trans care debate influenced by misinformation, doctors say
Lawmakers have introduced 75 pieces of legislation related to trans health care this Congress
Link to Full Article
Roll Call - Nina Heller
Posted August 15, 2024 at 7:30am

Doctors and advocates say efforts to ban gender-affirming care and the often inaccurate language lawmakers use to do it exploits most Americans' relative unfamiliarity with transgender people to push a political agenda.

The attacks have had an impact. Kellan Baker, the executive director of Whitman-Walker Institute, a D.C.-based health clinic specializing in LGBTQ+ health care, said that basing these attacks on falsehoods helps craft the narrative of transgender people as a "boogeyman" to scare people.

"There's less than 1 percent of the U.S. population that is transgender, which means that many people don't know a transgender person personally, or even if they do, they maybe don't know that much about what medical care for transgender people looks like," Baker said.

Most major medical and mental health associations in the United States, including the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, say gender-affirming care, which includes a wide range of services including hormone therapy and surgical procedures, is medically necessary.

"This is not just kind of made-up care, or just, we're kind of freestyling it," said Terrence Weeden, a staff adolescent physician at Whitman-Walker. "This is supported by multiple organizations, professional organizations, who are providing guidelines."

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[Sephirah]

Yeah it very much is. And not just in the US. This is worldwide. Because trans people make up such a small proportion of the general populace, it's perceived as easy to sweep under the rug. To make trans folk to be such that they are either lying, or don't matter. It's very much the majority of ignorant people dictating what the minority of aware people should have rights to.

Just because YOU don't get it, doesn't mean it isn't real. Or that someone else doesn't need help. It's not your place to try and act as some kind of medical arbiter of what someone else is going through just because YOU don't go through it, or know anyone else who is. Have a bit of empathy for other people, instead of being so self-centred that the ONLY thing that matters is your wallet, or your own quality of life. Grow up and show a bit of humanity.

[KathyLauren]

This quote reveals just how sinister the disinformation campaign is:

"I don't think the goal is getting people to believe one lie. It's throwing out as many lies as possible in order to make people believe in nothing so that when they hear from transgender people ourselves or the parents of transgender youth or medical experts or medical organizations, that they aren't believed either"