Sylvie, my Citizen Action Project partner, and I watched a documentary titled “The Fight for Gender-Affirming Care.” This documentary was hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross, a trans journalist who fights for the rights of trans people. The documentary focused on specific stories, laws, and statistics in the United States about gender affirming care. They opened with defining and getting specific with what gender affirming care was. Their definition was: “Developmentally appropriate care that’s about understanding someone’s gender.” They later stated that it has roots in history and science, and doesn’t necessarily mean medical intervention is involved. This, coincidentally, is connected to a big misconception related to gender affirming care. Many people believe that surgery or hormones are essential for gender affirming care, but, in reality, many trans people who seek gender affirming care sometimes need therapy or another form of mental health support. Another common misconception is that gender affirming care is done without the consent of parents, which is entirely false. Doctors and caregivers always need permission from the parents before offering any type of care related to one’s gender. One of the biggest points they talked about in the documentary was that the laws against gender affirming care are harmful and unnecessary.
Many doctors and hospitals in states that don’t ban gender affirming care still do not offer it for fear of losing their licenses. This fear is often not justified, especially since it is usually related to transphobia, whether people are ready to admit it or not. Any hospitals that cannot provide gender affirming care or have restrictive rules regarding gender affirming care are always in split states or republican states, which also happen to have the most abortion bans and restrictive access to bodily autonomy. These ideas (bodily autonomy and the right to gender affirming care) are closely connected and often overlap. Many aspects of gender affirming care are not only related to trans people but can be offered to anyone, just so long as they and their healthcare provider think it is appropriate. This is one of the parts that relate the most to bodily autonomy since access to gender affirming care is often not controlled by the people who need it the most.
They ended the documentary by stating many ways people can help: following trans-led organizations, donating to reputable organizations and projects, signing petitions, attending protests, and contacting local and even federal representatives. Doing these things can help your friends, family, and strangers who are trans or who seek gender affirming care.
