Consider This from NPR - Three Trans Americans Reflect On The Current State Of Trans Rights

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Several U.S. states have passed bills restricting or banning gender-affirming care for trans youth, while other states have enacted measures to protect access to that care. What does that say about the future of trans rights in America?NPR's Melissa Block speaks with three trans Americans about the progress that's been made in regards to trans rights, and how those same rights are currently under attack.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. In just the past couple of years, over a dozen U.S. states have passed laws or policies that ban or heavily restrict gender-affirming care for minors. A new rule affecting transgender youth in Florida could take effect at any time now. Florida health leaders met... GOP lawmakers in Kentucky passed legislation to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors in the state. On the Capitol Watch, Idaho now has a law preventing gender-affirming care for transgender minors in the state. On the Capitol

Watch, Idaho now has a law preventing gender-affirming care for children. Governor Little signed. Opponents of those measures have sued to block them, in some cases successfully. At the same time, a number of other states have passed bills to protect access to gender-affirming care for young people. Here's Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz speaking last month on the day he signed an executive order to that effect. We want every Minnesotan to grow up feeling safe, valued, protected, celebrated, and free to exist as their authentic versions of themselves. Now many medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, endorse gender-affirming care for trans kids. They say treatments like puberty blockers and hormone

therapy are safe, medically necessary, and potentially life-saving. The politicians who oppose gender-affirming care tend to paint a very different picture. They talk about protecting children from harm. Here's Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds speaking at a news conference talking about families with trans kids. My heart goes out to them. I know how difficult this is. This is an extremely uncomfortable position for me to be in. You know, I don't like it, but I have to do what I believe right now is in the best interest of the kids. Last month, Governor Reynolds signed a law banning gender-affirming care in Iowa for those under the age of 18. Matt McIver met with Reynolds before she signed that bill to ask the governor not to do it.

McIver is the father of a trans child in Des Moines, and he spoke with NPR last month. I would hope that it would be hard for her to strip away the rights of parents. I would hope that it would be hard for her to pass a bill that the medical associations say will lead to harm of transgender kids. I would hope that it would be uncomfortable for her to attack a vulnerable community the way this bill does. I hope that those things are true. She did it anyway, and that was heartbreaking and disappointing, to be honest with you.

There isn't a medical association in the United States that thinks that this bill will help children. And it's not just trans youth who are the targets of anti-trans legislation. In Missouri, for example, the state attorney general recently issued an order that would restrict medical care for transgender youth and adults. legislation. In Missouri, for example, the state attorney general recently issued an order that would restrict medical care for transgender youth and adults. The measure was set to take effect this week, but a judge issued a temporary hold on the rule after a lawsuit was filed by LGBTQ

advocates. As of this recording, that hold was still in effect. Consider this. While trans people in the U.S. have gained more rights over the last few years, in many states, those same rights are under attack. Coming up, we speak with three trans people about how trans rights have changed

through their generations and how anti-trans legislation is shaping the future of trans rights. From NPR, I'm Melissa Block. It's Friday C's apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org. It's Consider This from NPR.

We're going to hear now the perspective of trans people from different generations, talking about the current political tensions over transgender care bans and other issues, and their hopes or fears about the future. My name is Parker Andrews. I'm 16 years old. Parker is a high school sophomore in St. Louis, Missouri. He started his medical transition two years ago. Hi, I'm Caleb Hobson-Garcia. I'm from Tallahassee, Florida. Caleb's 21, about to graduate from Florida State. He started his transition at age 12. And Deborah Hopkins, she's 66, a pastor in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hello, everyone. It's good to meet all of you. Hopkins recalls that when she started her transition in the 1980s, it was a very different time. It really was. In fact, the Internet still was nowhere near what it is today in terms of resourceful information. And so I was actually traveling blindly for much of that time, started out taking illegal hormones out of Canada. We didn't know what kind of medication we were getting out of Canada, but we were so desperate to begin that transition. You know, we were so young and naive. Caleb, let me turn to you there in Florida. You started medically transitioning with puberty

blockers when you were 12. When you listened to Debra talk about how things were back in her day, how does that strike you? It's such a different time. Yeah, I mean, incredibly different. And I know the first thought I had was, I'm so relieved that we live in a more accepting world right now. We live in a world that I can go to a doctor who prescribes me safe hormones, but I can go to CVS or Walgreens and I'll pick up safe hormones. And then the second thought that hit me was, is this going to be a reality eventually in the South that we'll need to go back to the way it was to black market in order to get hormones if they're being blocked

by legislation? So I'm relieved that we are where we are right now, but a little worried that the past might become the future. Parker Andrews, let me bring you in now there in Missouri. You're 16. You're part of a trans generation that's highly visible, very vocal. There's a higher percentage of your age group that identifies as non-binary or trans. But at the same time, you're transitioning at a time when lots of states are passing laws or have policies that will ban gender-affirming care or otherwise limit trans rights, including there where you live

in Missouri. How does all that affect you? It is a very scary time to be a trans person, especially just thinking about a lot of the ways that these bills are worded about protecting kids. But I often feel quite the opposite is true, especially when it comes to kids who are in the midst of transitioning, such as myself, because with centers being shut down and bills being passed that restrict or stop hormone replacement therapy entirely, as you were saying, where people have to resort to hormones that aren't either safely administered, hormones where they're not entirely sure where they're from. And then also there's just health risk with if you're unable to get any hormones at all, stopping hormones entirely without any medical intervention or oversight from a doctor

that can also have adverse health effects. You know, as I listen to this generation and what's going on in government with bills that are out there, I'm concerned, I'm really concerned, I'm angry actually, because I'm seeing them being pulled back into the time as I was growing up, and that's frightening. Caleb, you are about to graduate from Florida State. And I wonder, looking forward, if you see a place for yourself in Florida, is Florida where you want to be, given the legislation in the state, given the political climate? Yeah, and that's a question that I think my answer changes every day. I only know Florida. I was born and raised in Florida.

I wasn't planning on leaving the state when I graduated. I've gone back and forth thinking that, yes, I'm going to leave. I'm going to move to a friendlier place, a place where I know for a fact I'll continue to get healthcare that's covered by insurance. Then on the flip side, I want to stay and I want to keep fighting. I have all of these great job connections for what I want to do with my degree.

And so in a perfect world where none of these bills were passing, I absolutely would stay in Florida. And I think I am still going to stay in Florida. But it is scary to think about. It's hard not to feel as if there's a target on your back as a trans person in the state of Florida. Those who are opposed to gender-affirming care for transgender youth often make the argument that it's unsafe, that it's experimental. They might mention bone loss with puberty blockers or risks of permanent infertility with hormone replacement therapy. Parker, do you share any of those concerns about the long-term effects of the care that you're getting? For me, the biggest concern is balding. Same here. Outside of that, I would say that my care has been very regulated. I go in for routine blood work. I take supplements to make sure that my care has been very regulated. I go in for routine blood work.

I take supplements to make sure that my bones stay strong. I would say as far as things have gone, at least mental health-wise, I feel like I've even improved. I'm sure you've all heard a lot of the inflammatory and often really quite hateful language in these debates over transgender rights, which sometimes includes people essentially saying that trans people don't exist, that there are two sexes, that being trans is not an identity, it's an ideology. And I wonder how you shield yourself from vitriol like that, especially when it's framed as denying

that trans people, that you, don't even exist. As a woman of color, I experience that quite often. And I've gotten used to the rhetoric that comes out of the conversations that so many of them have because it's been directed at us as people of color throughout the generations. And I've learned to just ignore a lot of that noise, because that's what it is to me. It's noise. I ignore it. That's when I take my trip down to the beach or go up into the mountains and just exhale and let it go, let it out. Caleb, what about you? This is something I talked to my mom about after what Representative Webster Barnaby's comments in the Florida legislature.

He called trans people demons, imps, mutants, compared us to X-Men mutants. And I was sitting in the room when he said that. And I remember my first thought and my first action was I started laughing out loud, like legitimately laughing. And my thought was just, this man is so insecure. He's placing all of his hatred towards a group of people that he does not even want to even attempt to understand. This is a very shallow man and just someone that I don't think even respects himself if he can't respect people different from him. And the people who are against us are a very loud, but a very small minority that most people are good. And I truly do believe that. As we wrap up here, Debra,

I wonder if you have words of advice from your perspective as a 66-year-old woman for your younger colleagues here, Caleb and Parker, how you continue to persevere and press forward in your knowledge and understanding, walking in your authenticity. Remain in those supportive communities that will be able to help strengthen you, help guide and protect. And because you have loving parents, supportive parents there, guys, I need to be a part of your family. So you guys hang in there. Continue to do what you do and move forward because you all are going to move the needle to another level for the generation that's coming up behind you. Caleb, you've got about five years on Parker. What things would you like him to know? I mean, that transitioning is great. Caleb, you've got about five years on Parker. What things would you like him to know?

I mean, that transitioning is great. That every single year from when I was 16 to now, I've just become more and more comfortable and happy in my own identity and have just loved being able to become the man that I am today. The needle is always taking towards the path of progress. It's not fair that we need to be the ones pushing it. It'd be great if that needle ticked on its own, but it doesn't. And it is an honor in some ways to be able to push that needle. You're doing a great job already at helping do that for the entire community, not just yourself. And that's huge to be doing at 16. And Parker, I'm going to give you the last word. Thank you both so much. I'm at a point now that I never thought I would get to. Younger me never thought that I was going

to be able to transition or that I would find myself in such an accepting environment. And now that things are kind of cracking down, being able to see older queer people just being their true selves and living their lives and hearing just such words of encouragement, it really, it just, it makes me feel great and it makes me feel hopeful for my future. Parker, Andrews, Caleb Hobson-Garcia, Deborah Hopkins, thank you all so much for this conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Melissa, thank you.

Brianna Scott produced that conversation and contributed reporting to this episode. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Melissa Block. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org