On Jan. 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
As someone who identifies as nonbinary, I have chosen not to pursue gender-affirming care. However, that doesn‘t change my belief that it can be lifesaving for others.
Gender-affirming care refers to health services that aim to align an individual’s physical and social experiences with their gender identity. Any medical care that serves to affirm a person‘s gender identity can be considered GAC, such as hormone therapy, breast augmentation or hair plugs. The term is almost always applied to treatment for transgender people, but researchers say that GAC is more commonly received by cisgender people. This also applies to minors: While gender-affirming surgeries for minors are exceptionally rare, they are almost always performed for cisgender — not transgender — youth.
Trump’s executive order, “Protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” directly references hormone blockers as a method to chemically “mutilate” children. Hormone blockers, or gonadotropin-releasing hormones (GnRH), are medications that suppress the production of hormones in the body, and they are often used to delay or block puberty for minors. Any hormone replacement or blocking medications come with risks, such as breast cancer, cardiovascular issues and blood clots. But despite these risks, many minors report that GAC can be lifesaving treatment — and few regret their decision to pursue it.
A long term study conducted in association with the Trans Youth Project found that, out of 220 minors receiving gender-affirming care, only nine individuals expressed regret — and only half of the youth who expressed regret towards receiving GAC actually stopped receiving care.
Not only do youth who receive gender-affirming care rarely regret their decisions, but previous research has consistently demonstrated that gender-affirming care can be lifesaving in that it mitigates negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety and suicidality. GAC can be vital to mitigating negative mental health outcomes, especially given that transgender teens are much more frequently diagnosed with mental health conditions than their cisgender counterparts. In fact, a study from September 2024 shows anti-transgender laws led to up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth.
The UCLA William’s Institute reports that 300,100 youth ages 13 to 17 in the United States identify as transgender, and more than one-third of these individuals live in states that ban gender-affirming care. Research shows that access to gender-affirming care for minors, while not for everyone, can be absolutely lifesaving.
As a young person who has many transgender and cisgender friends who have received GAC, I’ve witnessed the pure joy and confidence it can bring to a person.
Banning gender-affirming care will not “save kids” as many claim; rather the suicide rate of transgender youth will continue to rise and joy will be stifled. It’s clear to me that gender-affirming care is vital to the health of both transgender and cisgender individuals.
(Mattie Sullivan) Mattie Sullivan is a senior at Rowland Hall, a member of the student council, a leader of Queer Straight Alliance and is soon heading to Northeastern University to study criminal justice and psychology.
Mattie Sullivan is a senior at Rowland Hall, a member of the student council, a leader of Queer Straight Alliance and is soon heading to Northeastern University to study criminal justice and psychology.
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