{"id":460161,"date":"2025-12-20T14:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460161\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T14:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:17:21","slug":"the-trump-administrations-transgender-health-care-ban-would-put-kids-lives-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460161\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trump administration\u2019s transgender health care ban would put kids\u2019 lives on the line."},"content":{"rendered":"

They want my son to die.<\/p>\n

That thought has been hovering just below my consciousness for the past year. Wednesday night it surged above the surface. Since Thursday morning, it\u2019s all I can hear.<\/p>\n

My son turned 12 last month. He\u2019s in seventh grade. And he\u2019s trans. Yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood at a microphone<\/a> and essentially proposed a federal ban on \u2026 him<\/a>. And that wasn\u2019t the only attack on my child this week.<\/p>\n

I should be used to the terror by now<\/a>. We\u2019re living in Trump\u2019s America, and this time around he\u2019s been truthful about at least one thing: He intends to soar to autocracy on the backs of the trans community\u2014especially trans kids. But the last 24 hours have brought a one-two-three punch.<\/p>\n

First, the House passed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s parting gift, House Resolution 3942, the Protect Children\u2019s Innocence Act<\/a>, which would make providing or seeking gender-affirming care for minors a crime; then, the White House<\/a> unleashed<\/a> what trans journalist Erin Reed called<\/a> \u201cthe single most aggressive attack on transgender healthcare in U.S. history,\u201d a proposed rule that would bar Medicaid-dependent hospitals from providing gender-affirming care to minors; and finally, on the flip side of the Medicaid strategy, the House voted to cut coverage for youth gender-affirming care<\/a>. While the Senate seems unlikely\u2014please, I think, please\u2014to enact a felony ban on gender-affirming health care for trans youth or approve the cuts to Medicaid coverage, the power of the federal purse strings alone is enough. The Hyde Amendment\u2013like threats to withhold Medicare and Medicaid funds from any hospital which provides such care will force them to stop offering it, and thus eliminate access to it, for the overwhelming majority of trans youth nationwide.<\/p>\n

Only those with the privileges of money, geography, and parental support will be able to continue (or start) receiving puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones from the courageous doctors who dare to treat them outside of hospital systems. (So will cisgender youth who are prescribed those medications<\/a> for other reasons.) The rest will turn to sympathetic women on hormone-replacement therapy, to the black market of internet forums and gym locker rooms\u2014or to despair. Existing disparities will deepen. According to the Trevor Project\u2019s 2024 survey<\/a>, 46 percent of trans and nonbinary youth have seriously considered suicide in the past year and 16 percent made an attempt. Studies<\/a> have repeatedly<\/a> shown<\/a> that receiving gender-affirming care<\/a> can slash that rate<\/a> by as much as 73 percent<\/a>. Access to care is among the most protective factors<\/a>, after having an affirming family and community.<\/p>\n

The culture war over trans youth reached a fever pitch in the 2024 election cycle. GOP operatives spent an astounding $222 million<\/a> on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ advertising\u2014more than on housing, immigration, and the economy combined. The president\u2019s drumbeat of discriminatory, overreaching executive orders<\/a> began on Inauguration Day and hasn\u2019t stopped. Twenty-five states now outlaw gender-affirming care for youth<\/a>, up from one (Arkansas) in 2021, with bans under consideration in Montana and New Hampshire, which means half of all trans young people can\u2019t access care. House Republicans, as Rep. Sarah McBride put it<\/a> on Wednesday, \u201cthink more about trans people than trans people think about trans people,\u201d and have already stripped many trans Americans of their livelihoods and health care, particularly those who are incarcerated<\/a>, federal employees<\/a>, or in the military<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My family is fortunate to live in New York, where Attorney General Letitia James<\/a> and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani<\/a> have led the charge to defend our trans community, and where last year\u2019s NY Equal Rights Amendment<\/a> enshrined trans rights in our state constitution. But their ability to protect trans New Yorkers has significant limitations, hindered further by Governor Kathy Hochul\u2019s refusal to sign three bills<\/a> which would protect recipients and providers of both gender-affirming and reproductive care. Even in a \u201cblue\u201d state. Even here in what I\u2019d consider to be the safest place in the country for trans kids.<\/p>\n

Hence that awful refrain that keeps repeating in my mind. They want my son\u2014and every kid like him\u2014to die. In the wake of the suicide of former Middlebury College swimmer Lia Smith, Erin Reed argued<\/a>, \u201cPolicies designed to make life unlivable for transgender people bear responsibility too; every trans suicide is a murder by those in power.\u201d* I\u2019ll take that one step further. By making life for trans youth too difficult to bear, the GOP is hellbent on a genocide by suicide. (With the assistance of a few spineless Democrats<\/a> and general<\/a> distancing<\/a> of the party from the cause.) And you better believe they\u2019ll be hunting trans adults before long. Eventually, the reprobates clenching the levers of power\u2014whether they really believe the vile things they say about trans people or are merely using the \u201cissue\u201d to whip up voters\u2014will wield them to eliminate all those who stand in opposition to their values.<\/p>\n

If this playbook sounds familiar, I\u2019ll give you a one-word hint: abortion. We\u2019ve already seen the right overturn Roe v. Wade, seen its disproportionate impact on people of color, those who live in rural areas and red states, the disabled, and those trapped in poverty. This is where the authoritarian leaders of late-stage capitalism want us: bent over, vulnerable, and powerless over our own bodies and lives. Gender-affirming and reproductive care are two sides of the same coin. We need to unite the forces fighting for both in a joint effort to preserve and restore bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n

The bodies and minds of children have long been a particular point of contention in American politics. Conservatives have made parental rights a cornerstone of their theocratic agenda<\/a>. \u201cBy natural right and moral authority, parents are the primary protectors of their children,\u201d Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared<\/a> in March. Their think tanks<\/a> argue that parents\u2019 rights trump everything<\/a>, much as radical organizations like Moms for Liberty<\/a> do when they confront school boards on \u201cDEI\u201d curricula, vaccine mandates, and \u201cfairness\u201d in sports. But not all parents. Not parents like me. Why are we the only ones who can\u2019t be trusted to make medical decisions in tandem with our children\u2019s doctors? The only ones who aren\u2019t the experts on our own kids?<\/p>\n

My son\u2019s due for his biannual Triptodur injection next month. My immediate response to yesterday\u2019s breaking news? I called the specialty pharmacy to place the order. The mere thought of going through estrogen puberty is enough to send his anxiety spiraling. I\u2019ve got to protect him from that however I can. For now, for us, that means staying proactive when it comes to his care\u2014and panicking each night as I lay in bed. If that changes, I will stop at nothing. If the Senate passes Greene\u2019s bill, I will become a felon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Pablo Andreu
\n Republicans Have Found a New Kind of U.S. Citizen They Can\u2019t Accept
\n Read More<\/b>\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n <\/p>\n

    The Dangerous Message Hiding in Karoline Leavitt\u2019s Face
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n

  2. \n <\/p>\n

    The Party of \u201cParental Rights\u201d Just Took a Terrifying Step Toward Stripping Mine and Putting My Child\u2019s Life in Danger
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This has been my life since last November; however, it\u2019s been reality in other parts of the country<\/a> for years now. Medical providers have been sued<\/a>. Parents have been accused of abuse<\/a> and threatened<\/a> with having their kids removed by protective services. Families have left their homes and communities behind<\/a> to seek safety and care in more liberal states. As the American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s Chase Strangio explained<\/a> in an announcement that they will sue to block these laws and policies: If they take effect nationwide, there will be no place of domestic refuge. If our family has to flee the only home we\u2019ve ever known\u2014the America my German Jewish refugee grandma so proudly claimed and served\u2014we will leave. Just like she fled Germany. The irony isn\u2019t lost on me that we could only do so because Germany restored our citizenship as reparation for the devastation wrought on my ancestors eight decades ago.<\/p>\n

    I often ask my kids, \u201cWhat\u2019s my most important job as your parent?\u201d \u201cTo keep us safe and healthy,\u201d they\u2019ll reply with practiced eyerolls. Simply put, \u201csafe and healthy\u201d are more palatable metonyms for \u201calive.\u201d I conceived them and brought them into existence. It\u2019s my fundamental responsibility as a parent<\/a> to keep them here\u2014and my responsibility as a human to ensure the same for all trans youth, not just my son.<\/p>\n

    I never imagined I\u2019d become a felon. But when gender-affirming care is outlawed, only outlaws will get the care they or their children need. As government persecution of trans people intensifies, it\u2019s going to be harder and harder for those of us with the most at stake to be the loud ones. So, to the rest of you<\/a>: It\u2019s time to step up.<\/p>\n

    Correction, Dec. 19, 2025: This article originally misidentified Lia Smith as Lia Thomas.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

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