Today, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on transgender health care filled with dangerous disinformation about gender-affirming care and transgender people. Dr. Aisha Mays, adolescent medicine physician in California and Board Member with Physicians for Reproductive Health, responds:
“As a physician who cares for young people, it is one of the greatest honors of my life to sit with patients and hear their stories. Patients have a knowledge of who they are and what they dream of doing over the course of their lives. The transgender patients I care for are no different. They are young people with hopes, aspirations, fears, desires, and a deep understanding of who they are. They know what they need to live authentically, and that includes gender-affirming care.
Today’s report is propaganda aiming to delegitimize the perfectly safe, effective, and evidence-based health care that transgender people access to be who they are.
“Today’s report is propaganda aiming to delegitimize the perfectly safe, effective, and evidence-based health care that transgender people access to be who they are. Being transgender, just like being cisgender, is not a choice nor can it be reversed by any medical or social method. The same way cisgender people know who they are, so do trans people. The same way cis people receive gender-affirming care, so do trans people.
“This report is clearly trying to build a case for conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is dangerous, discredited, and opposed by every major medical and mental health association including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and the National Association of Social Workers. Conversion therapy only causes harm. There is no healing in trying to force someone to be someone they are not.
There is no healing in trying to force someone to be someone they are not.
“Make no mistake, gender-affirming care is safe, it is effective at treating the dangerous reality of gender dysphoria, and as a result, it is lifesaving. Transgender and queer people, no matter their age, deserve to be trusted and affirmed.
“I am proud to be in a community of physician advocates committed to listening to the needs of all young people, including transgender youth. Uplifting and embracing trans youth is the only long-term solution that will allow all young people to live whole, healthy, and safe lives.”