In this podcast, I continue talking with GSA sponsor Chantelle Hansen about being an ally to LGBTQ+ students, about transgender advocacy, and about how we need to always be aware that not everyone has the privilege that we are afforded as straight, cis-gender white women.
#saygay #transgender #trans #LGBTQ+
In this podcast I interview a GSA sponsor in Nevada, who talks about the issues faced by her LGBTQ+ students at school and at home, and discusses the importance of a supportive environment and supportive influences. Chantelle also discusses the fallout one student faced when he was elected homecoming queen and brought out a Pride flag at the event. (Note, my Zoom audio had feedback, I apologize in advance.)
According to a new study (prepublication peer-reviewed article) just released by the journal Pediatrics (the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics) (access the article here), it is unlikely that children who socially transition will have “detransitioned” 5 years after their transitioning.
NBC News relayed the information this way:
Transgender children are unlikely to “detransition,” or come to identify with their birth sex, five years after their social transition, a new study found.
The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, come from a larger project called the Trans Youth Project. Researchers at Princeton University began in 2013 to track 317 kids between ages 3 and 12 who socially transitioned — the first and largest sample of its kind, according to Kristina Olsen, the study’s lead author and a professor of psychology at Princeton.
The results showed that five years after their initial social transition, 94 percent of the study participants were living as either trans girls or trans boys. The remaining youth had “retransitioned,” as the study called it, and no longer identified as binary transgender. Of that group, 2.5 percent came to identify with their birth sex.
The findings of this study go against the efforts of many Republican states recently to ban the provision of transition-related medical care and even social transition support.
Florida’s surgeon general recently released guidance recommending against any medical or socially-affirming care of transgender children. Read more about Florida’s actions relating to transgender children here.
In this podcast, I cover a rally – a Pride rally, and there is *no* rally as much fun as a pride rally. I start by doing a few interviews with rally attendees as we wait for the rally to begin. Then I cover the various rally speakers – we have local LGBTQ+ activists, a LGBTQ+ student activist – Sebastian Cook, representatives from Equality Florida, PFLAG Melbourne, Space Coast Pride, Spektrum Health, and Families for Safe Schools.
Tina Jensen sings, and the awesome cast of We’re Here – Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara, and Shangela Laquifa Wadley – spoke to the crowd before the march.
On May 1, 2022, multiple groups in Brevard County, Florida came together to celebrate our LGBTQ+ youth and community. The #brevardsaygay rally and march, held at the Front Street Park off of the 192 causeway, gathered hundreds of LGBTQ+ families and supporters.
Proponents of Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law say it doesn’t remove any right from LGBTQ+ youth, rather it provides rights to parents. However, it prevents mention of LGBTQ people, history, and culture in the younger grades, and is vague about what is legal in the older grades. It takes away the rights of LGBTQ+ kids, and kids from LGBTQ+ families, to talk about their families in the way that other kids can. It prevents discussion of LGBTQ+ issues even as they pertain to bullying, or individual education plans.
What the new law does is say to LGBTQ+ kids and families that their identities, their families, are not okay to talk about. That violates their right to feel safe, accepted, and included in school.
Multiple members of the community spoke at the rally, to include Melbourne High School student Sebastian Cook, a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ youth.
Listen to Sebastian’s speech here:
Other speakers included West Melbourne City Council Member Dan McDow, Shelley Rodden, Bill McKay of Space Coast Pride, Jabari Hosey of Families for Safe Schools, Monica Toro-Lisciandro of Colectiva Queer, and representatives from Equality Florida, PFLAG, Spektrum Health, and several members of the local transgender community.
Tina Jensen sang for the crowd:
In a delightful and fun closing to the rally, the cast of HBO’s We’re Here – Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara, and Shangela Laquita Wadley – spoke to the crowd and led us all in We are Family – watch for that in Season 3 of We’re Here. Here was their intro:
#brevardsaygay #familiesforsafeschools #equalityflorida #spektrumhealth #pflag #spacecoastpride #colectivaqueer
This is an important step in battling the wave of anti-LGBTQ, especially anti-trans, legislation across the country.
The agency asked a federal court to issue an order stopping the law from taking effect.
Justice Department challenges Alabama law criminalizing transgender health care for minors
TheJustice Departmentfiled a lawsuit Friday challenging anew Alabama lawthat criminalizes certain medical care for transgender children, marking the first time the agency has sued a state over restrictions on gender-affirming care.
Thecomplaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Alabama, asks the court to block the law from taking effect, arguing it violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause”by discriminating on the basis of sex and transgender status.”
The Alabama law “would force parents of transgender minors, medical professionals, and others to choose between forgoing medically necessary procedures and treatments, or facing criminal prosecution,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
In an interview about the Don’t Say Gay Law in Florida, and its repercussions, I was asked “What about parents’ rights?” I thought a lot about the question after the interview. The answer I gave was accurate – parents’ rights should incorporate all parents, not simply the parents who do not want LGBTQ issues discussed in school – and that would change the narrative.
But my answer was incomplete. In this podcast I explore what rights students and parents have in school, and why the Don’t Say Gay law is not actually about parents’ rights to protect their children, but rather is their attempt to erase discussion of LGBTQ families, history, and risk factors (such as bullying).
Parents do not have the right to erase people. Every student has the right to be safe, affirmed, and respected at school.
#saygay #LGBTQ+ #LGBTQallies #beanally #safeschools
Republicans across the country are currently legislating to make various treatments for transgender children illegal, even though those treatments are supported by medical professionals, to include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the NASW (Simon, 2021; NASW, 2022). Just in the past several years over half of the U.S. state legislatures have considered laws that limit the rights and freedoms of transgender children – even the right to receive medically necessary affirming care.
Every year the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducts a survey to determine the mental health status of our kids. For instance, that same survey has found, in recent years, that 1.8% of students identify as transgender, and more than ⅓ of trandgender adolescents had attemped suicide in the previous 12 months (Martin, 2021).
Recently, Florida legislators passed the Don’t Say Gay law, which prevents the mention of LGBTQ issues (and even existence) in younger grades (and due to vagueness, potentially in older grades). Now Florida’s Department of Health has issued guidance stating that youth should not receive hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs, or gender reassignment surgery (Mazziotta, 2022). Additionally, Florida’s DoH advised against any form of gender-affirming care, to include using preferred names and pronouns – in direct opposition to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Medical Association guidance (Mazziotta, 2022).
With the spate of hateful, anti-LGBTQ actions being taken in Florida, Republicans – for all their rhetoric – know that the mental health of our transgender chidren will suffer.
What is their response?
To pull out of participation in the CDC survey.
They know harm will result, and they don’t care. They just don’t want it documented (Santich, 2022).
When children and adolescents feel gender dysphoria – the painful awareness that their physical gender does not represent their gender identity – treatment to forestall the development of secondary sex characteristics provides not only relief but also time. This treatment, using “puberty blockers,” is effective – and the effects are reversible.
As children grow into adolescence and approach adulthood, if their gender identity and sex assigned at birth remain different, use of gender-affirming hormones can be started. Thus this treatment can be reversed if necessary, and is literally life-saving in the meantime.
“Young people who receive such gender-affirming care report improvements in their overall well-being, and their level of well-being is generally in line with that of their cisgender peers – and sometimes it’s higher (Martin et al., 2021).”
According to a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health,
“Youth presenting for medical treatment of gender dysphoria at earlier developmental stages (i.e., early vs. late puberty) endorse lower rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality and higher body esteem and life satisfaction. This highlights the need to improve access to early medical treatment to attenuate mental health risk (Chen et al., 2021).”
In their push for power, these lawmakers don’t care who they hurt. They are hurting the people who most need society’s care and support – transgender kids. Push back. Let your representatives know that you support transgender youth. #LGBTQallies #SayGay #TransgenderRights
For the full studies, read the journal articles linked below (Chen et al., 2021, Journal of Adolescent Health, and Martin et al., 2021, New England Journal of Medicine). Also, go to the GLAAD and NASW sites to see the professional medical organizations which support treatment for transgender youth.
References
Chen, D., Abrams, M., Clark, L., Ehrensaft, D., Tishelman, A. C., Chan, Y., Garofalo, R., Olson-Kennedy, J., Rosenthal, S. M., & Hidalgo, M. A. (2021, June 1). Psychosocial characteristics of transgender youth seeking gender-affirming medical treatment: Baseline findings from the trans youth care study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(6): 1104-1111.
Martin, S., Sandberg, E. S., & Shumer, D. E. (2021, August 12). Criminalization of gender-affirming care – Interfering with essential treatment for transgender children and adolescents. New England Journal of Medicine, 385(7): 579-581.
Mazziotta, J. (2022, April 21). Florida advises against gender-affirming care for trans kids in Texas-like guidance. People. https://people.com/health/florida-advises-against-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-kids-in-texas-like-guidance/
NASW condemns efforts to redefine child abuse to include gender-affirming care. (2022, February 25). NASW. https://www.socialworkers.org/News/News-Releases/ID/2406/NASW-Condemns-Efforts-to-Redefine-Child-Abuse-to-Include-Gender-Affirming-Care
Santich, K. (2022, April 20). Florida pulls out of CDC survey on students’ drinking, drug use, and suicidal thoughts. Orlando Sentinal. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-florida-pulls-out-of-cdc-youth-mental-health-survey-20220420-kpu7a7w6mrdkdbglliic4aazbu-story.html
Simon, B. (2021, April 19). Medical association statements supporting trans youth healthcare and against discriminatory bills. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/blog/medical-association-statements-supporting-trans-youth-healthcare-and-against-discriminatory
Guide to Creating Safe and Welcoming Schools 