ACLU: We Know States Banning Transitioning Children Are Just Political Because They Also ‘Are Pushing Against’ ‘Masks in Schools’

On Monday’s “Democracy Now,” Deputy Director for Trans Justice with the ACLU LGBTQ and HIV Project Chase Strangio reacted to a federal court upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender transition treatment for children by stating that the same states that have pushed to ban gender transition treatment for minors are the same that “are pushing against vaccines and masks in schools. And so, this is, of course, we know, to be a political argument in these states that are just categorically opposed to transgender people living full and thriving lives.”

Strangio said, “Every major medical association in the United States has opposed this type of legislation, and that includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Psychiatric Association. We’re talking every mainstream medical association in the United States is opposed to this legislation and believes and knows, from evidence and clinical experience, that this is going to cause very serious harms to transgender adolescents.”

He continued, “And, of course, the states are raising arguments in defense of these laws that make absolutely no sense when tested by courts that are actually looking at the evidence, arguments like the care has side effects, when we know that every medication has side effects. No intervention is perfect, but that doesn’t mean that we have states banning that form of care. And, of course, these are the same states and the same individuals that pushed for the permission to have Ivermectin to treat COVID, when it had absolutely no evidence of efficacy, and are pushing against vaccines and masks in schools. And so, this is, of course, we know, to be a political argument in these states that are just categorically opposed to transgender people living full and thriving lives.”

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