Journalist Resource Series
Guide for Reporting on Anti-Trans Medical Bans
In recent years, US state legislators have increasingly
targeted trans youth with legislation intended to
severely restrict or bar their access to gender-affirming
medical care. Many of these bills seek to criminalize
parents, caregivers, guardians, or healthcare
professionals who support or facilitate their access to
affirming care. Below is a guide for journalists across
the country who are covering this legislation, and best
practices for centering those most impacted by anti-
trans medical bans — transgender youth.
To connect with a spokesperson while covering anti-
transgender medical bans, please contact K Richardson
at
[email protected].
For general inquiries, please contact Arielle Rebekah at
[email protected].
Tips for Reporting on
Anti-Transgender Medical Bans
This guide is intended to be a tool for those reporting on anti-trans medical
bans. It outlines the harm these pieces of legislation can and will cause to
transgender youth across the country who seek access to gender-affirming
medical care, along with their families and medical providers. Please be
01
encouraged to research beyond this guide as you’re working to report
accurately and sensitively about these bans.
TALK TO THOSE MOST
IMPACTED
Talk to trans youth themselves
Medical care bans attack the health, wellness, and medical care of trans youth, and therefore the
voices of trans youth need to be front and center in any media coverage. Trans youth are experts
in their own lives and experiences and can most directly speak to the impact of these proposed
medical care bans.
“
Everyone deserves to feel safe and supported while at the doctor’s office,
especially young people. Banning access to gender-affirming healthcare
violates patient-provider relationship boundaries and blocks young people from
necessary medical care. Trans and nonbinary youth experience increased risks
“
of harm when they are forced to find care through alternative routes.
-- Gia Cordova, Associate Director, Gender Justice Leadership
Programs (pronouns: she/her)
Consider always including trans youth voices, particularly those of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and
People of Color) and disabled trans youth, which are routinely ignored. For more thoughts from
trans youth, read GJLP’s zine No Pride Without Trans Youth: What we (trans youth) saw, felt +
learned this Spring 2021 legislative session.
Talk to BIPOC and disabled trans youth
Also make note of both racism and ableism in medicine, along with health disparities for disabled
and BIPOC trans youth, and how these factors compound the impact of anti-trans legislation on
BIPOC and disabled trans youth.
BIPOC experience lower life expectancy, high infant mortality rates, and are more likely to
die in the Emergency Department.
Disabled LGBTQ youth report higher instances of harassment and are more likely to be
bullied than their non-disabled peers, having a direct impact on the suicidality rates of
disabled LGBTQ youth and young adults.
Ableism and transphobia work together to medicalize and/or criminalize bodies deemed
non-normative, which increases harm, violence, and access barriers for both disabled and
non-disabled trans youth.
Doctors frequently dismiss ableist medical viewpoints as “just common sense,” which leads
them to provide inadequate and inequitable treatments for disabled patients.
Studies show that healthcare professionals routinely underestimate the quality of life for
disabled people, which often leads them to limit or eliminate treatment options for these
patients.
Ableism and anti-Black racism lead the medical field to pathologize BIPOC youth,
overlooking the impact1 that systemic oppression has on mental and physical health.
“ At the root of anti-trans medical bans, specifically for trans youth, is a culture of
transphobia, actively engaging in the erasure of trans identity. We must affirm
and normalize access to gender affirming care for trans youth. It is a fact that
greater levels of support and acceptance dramatically lower the likelihood trans
youth will engage in self-harm or suicide. The first step to that is access to
“
gender affirming care.
-- Faith Phillips, a trans adult and advocate previously denied access to gender-
affirming care. Owner of Wish Me Luck Tattoo (pronouns: she/her)
Talk to supportive adults who are also
impacted by medical bans
Many of the medical care bans that have been introduced would severely criminalize adults, including
parents, doctors, and healthcare providers who are supportive and affirming of trans youth. The voices
of supportive adults must be included as a part of the media narrative to help correct the erroneous
perception that all grown-ups in positions of power are in favor of these harmful bans. These bans
seek to criminalize adults who are simply advocating for the well-being of transgender young people.
Consider always including the voices of impacted adults, such as: parents and guardians of trans
youth, doctors and healthcare providers, and Professional Medical Association representatives².
SHARE ABOUT WHY THESE BANS ARE HARMFUL
02
Anti-trans medical bans severely limit or completely bar trans youth from legally accessing
necessary and life-saving care.
The filing and passage of anti-trans bills has historically exacerbated mental health concerns among
youth, as evidenced by the increase in calls to transgender crisis services (such as Trans Lifeline
and The Trevor Project) in the wake of past legislation.
Anti-trans medical bans also have the power to tear families apart, either by pursuing criminal
action against parents who facilitate access to gender-affirming care or by forcing families to
relocate out of state in order to pursue adequate healthcare. Poor and low income families are
disproportionately impacted by the latter, as they experience greater barriers to relocation.
Lawmakers perpetuate the erroneous notion that gender-affirming medical care is potentially
harmful, which both dehumanizes trans people and may deter parents from supporting a young
person’s medical care.
¹Please note: This is authored by American Academy of Pediatrics, which is completely independent from The American College of
Pediatricians–a “deceptively titled organization that actually promotes an anti-LGBTQ agenda.” For more on this, read Freedom for All
Americans’ Truth Alert.
²Medical care bans would criminalize best practice medical care for transgender youth that is backed by the American Academy of
Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and other leading medical authorities.
REFRAME MISINFORMED
03
NARRATIVES ABOUT
GENDER-AFFIRMING MEDICAL CARE
Transgender youth can and should be trusted to
know who they are.
Research by the Mayo Clinic has found that most children develop an
understanding of their own gender by age 3, whether they are transgender or
cisgender. It is important to understand what gender-affirming medical care
looks like for transgender youth.
For transgender children medically transitioning below the age of adolescence,
doctors generally stick to prescribing a hormone blocker in order to inhibit the
onset of puberty. Sex hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone, may be
prescribed as the child reaches adolescence.
Gender-affirming surgeries are rarely approved for people under the age of 18.
Most bodily changes caused by GAHT (gender-affirming hormone therapy) as
prescribed to trans youth are partially, if not fully reversible.
Journalists should resist the narrative that anti-trans medical bans are about
giving trans youth time to decide what they want, and instead focus on the
immense social and emotional harm that delaying transition can cause.
04 DRAW ATTENTION TO ANTI-LGBTQ
GROUPS AND ORGS BEHIND THE SCENES
The proliferation of anti-trans medical care bans is not homegrown hatred, and instead reflects the
influence of powerful far-right anti-LGBTQ organizations and coalitions. Historically, groups like the
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Family Research Council (FRC), Liberty Council, and the Heritage
Foundation have directly or indirectly fueled the introduction of many of these bills.
There are also a number of local and statewide groups organizing for the purpose of pushing a
transphobic agenda. A number of state legislatures contain subgroups or caucuses who are largely
responsible for the creation and proposal of anti-trans legislation (such as North Dakota’s Bastiat
Caucus). Notably, ADF played a key role in drafting the language for ID HB 500, which has become a
framework for anti-trans athletics bans nationwide. For more on the danger of anti-trans medical
bans, check out TransLash podcast’s Transphobia in a Suit and their multi-part series The Anti-
Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality, wherever you get your podcasts.
ACTION ITEMS |
INVESTIGATE AND
SHARE ABOUT:
The anti-trans histories and agendas of far-right anti-
LGBTQ organizations and coalitions. Check out Southern
Poverty Law Center’s Anti-LGBTQ Hate Map for information
on active hate groups in your state. Avoid linking to these
groups’ websites in your reporting so as not to increase
their reach or ad revenue.
The depth of far-right religious organizational
involvement in the issue of medical care
bans, for example, the Heritage Foundation’s
05
influential convening of a 2019 panel advocating
against affirming the gender identities of
transgender youth.
Local and state groups pushing a hateful, anti-
trans agenda, including anti-LGBTQ churches,
legislative caucuses, committees, and
STAY UP TO DATE ON
subgroups, and “concerned” parents’ groups. ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATION
THE MONEY TRAIL: Stay up to date on this year’s anti-transgender
• Who is funding these groups behind the legislation using the Freedom for All Americans
scenes? How are these groups utilizing their | Legislative Tracker. This tracker focuses on
resources to push an agenda? data from the current legislative session and
• Have they previously/are they currently therefore does not contain historical data about
supporting or endorsing any government anti-trans legislation.
officials?
• What story does this tell? For information about current state policies
• How can you share this information as a call affecting trans youth, check out Movement
to action for your readers? Advancement Project’s Equality Maps.
Include information about how your readers
can obtain legal assistance and/or take action
against anti-trans legislation in their state,
including but not limited to contacting their
local ACLU affiliate or Equality Federation
member.
Include state and local trans leadership in your
reporting. Your local ACLU affiliate, Equality
Federation Member, and Transgender Law
Center may be helpful in connecting you with
trans-led organizations.
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