By Jeremiah Ancheta
On April 13, 2023, an emergency rule from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was introduced that restricts gender-affirming care for transgender people in the state. According to an article by AP News, the ruling “will impose numerous restrictions on both adults and children before they can receive puberty blocking drugs, hormones or surgeries ‘for the purpose of transitioning gender.’” It goes into effect on April 27 and expires in February 2024.
Such restrictions include:
- Transgender patients must have undergone at least 15 hour-long sessions in therapy over a course of at least 18 months prior to seeking gender-affirming care
- Patients must be screened for autism and “social-media addiction,”
- Patients with psychiatric symptoms due to mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, must first be treated and resolved
As we can see, Missouri has made it nearly impossible for transgender people to attain gender-affirming care. As noted in previous posts from Cloud Dancers, transgender people often go through various mental health struggles due to the discrimination and stigma they face.
In fact, according to the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, “research demonstrates that gender-affirming care… greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and non-binary children and adolescents.” Furthermore, a 2021 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health involving 11,000 gender-diverse youth found that access to such care reduced depression and suicidality.
Additionally, the ruling is harmful in an intersectional manner as it denies access to gender-affirming care to autistic transgender people. In other words, the ruling is harmful towards transgender people, autistic people, and autistic transgender people.
Unfortunately, Missouri isn’t the only state to see bans on gender-affirming care. Other states such as Alabama and Florida have had similar rulings implemented.
Not too long ago, “[Texas] Gov. Greg Abbott told state health agencies… that medical treatments provided to transgender adolescents, widely considered to be the standard of care in medicine, should be classified as ‘child abuse’ under existing state law” according to a 2022 article by the New York Times.
Many organizations are already looking to challenge this ruling. For instance, the ACLU and Lambda Legal said in a joint statement that they would “take any necessary legal action” and urged those affected to call, according to another article by AP News.