The attack on trans youth
Since 2016 there has been a concerted effort by right wing politicians and donors to shift the conversation about trans identities into demonising trans youth healthcare. The recent outright ban on all forms of gender affirming care in Russia, the multiple bans on trans healthcare for minors by US States, and the contortions over self-ID ID flow from the same root, namely that right wing politicians see trans folk as the key wedge issue that will help them retain power.
Yet, this is not a new phenomenon. Trans healthcare as long as trans healthcare has existed has always been viewed as problematic by the wider public. The attacks we see in 2023 mirror those in Germany in the 1900s, Britian in the 1940s and 50s, and the US in the 1970s and 1980s. What marks today’s rhetoric out is that it is youth healthcare that is demonised and called into question. Trans youths are some of the most disadvantaged members of society, treated with distain, bullied, and often cast out from their peer group simply for wanting to live as their authentic selves. In targeting them the media and politicians cry out about safe guarding and mental health, forgetting that it is they who are responsible for much of the pain inflicted on the very youths they wish to protect.
There are issues with trans healthcare that cut beyond simple medical science. Medicalising any personal issue in the way that trans identities have has always had a political edge, especially where children are concern. However, all of the treatments trans kids potentially have access to were already trialled on cisgendred kids. Puberty blockers are a recognised and safe treatment. HRT likewise. The same for the various surgeries, as many of them were trialled on intersex children before they were used by trans folk. Nothing about trans healthcare is unique to trans folk, it just happens that the right wing press and politicians jumped on a handful of outliers to justify cutting trans healthcare completely.
Left wing politicians and media pundits have weighed in on the issue, and it is arguable that the genesis of the current anti-trans crusade began with the publishing of Janice Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire in 1979. She was a radical feminist who viewed trans women as usurpers and frauds, never-women who remained castrated men. This exclusionary feminism bubbled up from the left, and was coopted by the right wing to justify their actions. Trans kids just want to live their lives in the best way possible, yet Empire’s shadow is a long one indeed. Julie Bindel and Julie Burchill both wrote Guardian articles in the early 2000s excoriating trans identities, especially trans women, and since then left wing thinkers and writers have often toed a middle line between women’s rights and trans rights that sees trans men as victims of some patriarchal conspiracy. All of this plays into the hands of those who wish to strip all trans rights back to the basics of merest possible humanity.
This is not scare mongering. While there are plenty of cis allies defending trans kids, those who control policy and the judiciary have erred towards the right wing. Trans kids are used as the current punching bag through which they cling to power. That all sides of the political spectrum point to trans kids’ mental health issues and potential infertility fails to understand the social power play that causes the mental health issues in the first place. They also fundamentally misunderstand trans fertility, as sperm banking is available and trans men can chose to get pregnant if they wish. On top of that, not everyone wants children, or at least does not want to bear children as their assigned sex at birth. The infantilising of trans youth, especially trans boys, is a naked patriarchal power grab further pushing women into a lesser childlike status.
What can be done? Litigation, activism, and engaging politicians of all stripes is a start. Yet, this is a time consuming process that few parents and kids can afford. It requires journalists to stop writing insidious articles that drip feed misinformation and outright lies to their readers. It requires people to become switched on to the reality of trans kids lived experiences. In essence it requires voters and the general public to actually care about trans issues. Trans kids deserve far better than the vitriol that is sent their way, and it is up to all of us to fight for their right to live in their own bodies as their authentic selves.
