A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect at the start of the year. Since the legislation was passed last summer, parents have been scrambling for help.

For the last two years, Koen has routinely self-administered weekly testosterone injections without a second thought.

During that time, the trans 17-year-old said his self-image and school and family life has drastically improved. His fear of needles, too, has faded.

“[Transitioning] made me look forward to things more because now I can start paying attention to the better version of myself,” said Koen, who asked to be identified by his first name because of fears for his safety. “It’s something I feel like I’ve needed for a while. I’m able to express myself more fluidly and feel comfortable doing that, which I think is a very big step for me right now.”

At the start of the year, though, a greater worry emerged.

A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect on Jan. 1 prohibiting puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-reaffirming surgery. Now, Koen isn’t sure he could continue his hormone treatment.

Louisiana is one of 22 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, disrupting health care needs for trans and nonbinary people.

  • LwL@lemmy.world
    162·
    6 months ago

    The rate of kids that don’t transition after being on puberty blockers is something like <2%. All I’ve seen is some people crying about regret rates increasing by a lot when it goes from like 1 to 2%. “It doubled!!!” (Should be obvious that it will go up a little the easier it is to get treatment).

    In any case, while puberty blockers aren’t without adverse effects, those aren’t huge, so prohibiting them is utterly nonsensical unless a majority of kids end up not going through with it.

    And if a child knows at age 7 that it’s not the gender it was assigned at birth, that’s not some puberty thing. Which is a significant portion of transgender people.