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KHN: Targeted By Politicians, Trans Youth Struggle With Growing Fear And Mental Health Concerns

Charlie Apple had experienced people calling into question his humanity, suggesting he was just a confused kid or even a moral aberration. As a transgender teen, he had accepted that his future could include discrimination, verbal abuse, and violence. The sense of peace he said he felt in transitioning physically, however, was worth the risk. Still, it was especially painful last year, Apple said, when Texas lawmakers used the same sort of dehumanizing language he’d heard on the playground as they debated whether to deny trans kids everything from participation in sports to gender-affirming medical care. (West, 2/23)

Legislation that would make it illegal to perform gender confirmation surgery on juveniles was introduced in the Idaho House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Rep. Bruce Skaug, a Republican from Nampa, said the bill, if approved, would modify the state’s current law against female genital mutilation to include boys and make it clear that performing gender confirmation surgery on a child is a felony. The proposal includes exceptions for birth defects and “verifiable chromosomal disorders,” he said. “The types of surgeries and actions proscribed in the bill are often irreversible, or at the very least cause permanent damage on a child that I believe is too young to be making those decisions,” Skaug told the committee. (2/22)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared that sex-change procedures involving transitioning minors constitute child abuse under state law. Paxton cited measures including gender-reassignment surgery and the prescribing of so-called puberty blockers in the order released on Monday. “There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said in a statement. “I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.” (Carroll and Ceron, 2/21)

Florida state Rep. Joe Harding (R) on Tuesday withdrew an amendment to his Parental Rights in Education act – known to its critics as “Don’t Say Gay” – that would have required school principals to inform a student’s parents of their sexual orientation within six weeks of learning they were not straight. Harding had introduced the amendment Friday, and removed it just before a House question and answer session on Tuesday. The amendment had instructed school principals “to develop a plan, using all available governmental resources, to disclose such information within 6 weeks after the decision to withhold such information from the parent.” (Migdon, 2/22)