The 21st Show

Best of: The state of gender-affirming care

 
A supporter for the transgender community holds a trans flag in front of counter-protesters to protect attendees from their insults and obscenities at the city's Gay Pride Festival in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019.

A supporter for the transgender community holds a trans flag in front of counter-protesters to protect attendees from their insults and obscenities at the city's Gay Pride Festival in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. AP Photo/Robin Rayne

In February 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas), issued a directive that would classify gender-affirming care for trans kids as “child abuse.” Medical professionals and LGBTQ advocates worry about the ripple effect of this order on Texans, and the harm it could pose to trans youth and their families. Here in Illinois, Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago provides gender-affirming care through its gender development program.  Earlier this month, the hospital released a statement in response to the Texas Governor, titled “Gender Affirming Care is Healthcare, not Child Abuse.”

To talk about the state of gender-affirming care and how the directive in Texas could have effects elsewhere in the United States, we were joined by a Texas journalist who's been following the story, as well as a doctor who works in the Lurie Children's Hospital's Gender Development Program.

This conversation originally aired March 21, 2022.

GUESTS: 

Elena Rivera

Health Reporter, KERA, Dallas

Dr. Lisa Simons

Attending Physician in Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and the Gender development program, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago | Assistant professor of pediatrics in adolescent medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

 

 

Prepared for web by Owen Henderson

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