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The U.S. Supreme Court Will Decide About Trans Kids’ Bodies

Tucker Lieberman
4 min readJun 25, 2024

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kid in a Superman shirt sits on a windowsill, balancing self by stretching out hands to touch the sides of the window frame
Superkid by hartono subagio from Pixabay

In just three years, half of U.S. states have passed laws restricting, criminalizing, or otherwise taking away gender-affirming healthcare from people under 18.

The states that have done this have Republican-controlled legislatures. A the same time, over a dozen states with Democratic-controlled legislatures have made efforts to protect minors’ access to gender-affirming healthcare.

See what I mean:

Here’s a map of the state legislatures, color-coded by which party controls them.

27 Republican-controlled states and 21 Democratic-controlled states
Source: 270 to Win

And here’s a map of the bans on gender-affirming care for minors.

It’s pretty much the same map. The states that ban gender-affirming care for minors are all Republican-controlled.
Erin in the Morning, June 4, 2024

Yes, it’s the same map.

This Is About Our Bodies

Regulations on our bodies affect our dignity, autonomy, psychological and physical well-being, and social inclusion.

Choices we make about our bodies are related to our genders.

Should trans kids’ bodies be politicized? No.

Which side is politicizing trans kids’ bodies?

Well, the Democratic Party is on the side of the doctors and psychologists. “All major U.S. medical associations support these practices as medically necessary and lifesaving,” as G. Samantha Rosenthal wrote in Scientific American.

Logos of 14 medical associations: Am Medical Association, Am Academy of Pediatrics, Am Psychological Association, Pediatric Endocrine Society, Am Society for Reproductive Medicine, World Health Organization, World Medical Association, Am Society of Plastic Surgeons, Am Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Am Counseling Association, Am Nurses Association, Am College of Physicians, USPATH (US Professional Association for Transgender Health), and Am Heart Association.
Source: MSNBC article by Katelyn Burns, Feb 12, 2024

So that leaves the Republican Party, to answer the question of who’s politicizing healthcare and the social integration of trans people.

Kids have always been trans, yet it’s just in the past three years — why, since the Capitol attack — that the Republican Party has…

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Tucker Lieberman
Tucker Lieberman

Written by Tucker Lieberman

Cult classic. Author of the novel "Most Famous Short Film of All Time." Editor for Prism & Pen and Identity Current. tuckerlieberman.com

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