I am writing to you today to demand that you reject the proposed guidance by Surgeon General Ladapo’s Department of Health on Gender Dysphoria in Children and Adolescents.
Care providers, doctors, and leading medical associations have been clear that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, and evidence-based, and that it’s literally lifesaving.
The issued guidance by the Dept. of Health and the studies used by this board are inaccurate and dangerous. This guidance is nothing more than another tool for the Governor to express his opposition to transgender individuals’ existence.
The nation’s leading health organizations support gender-affirming care for transgender and gender non-conforming people, including the American Academy of Pediatrics; the American Medical Association; The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; The American College of Physicians; The American Psychiatric Association; The American Psychological Association; The American Academy of Family Physicians; The Endocrine Society; The Pediatric Endocrine Society; American Nurses Association; American Public Health Association; American Heart Association; National Association of Social Workers; World Medical Association; and The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, among others.
There is overwhelming evidence to support the positive mental health impacts of gender-affirming medical care for trans youth - including in some of the very studies cited by the DOH and Board of Medicine. Prohibiting social transition is clear government intrusion on personal and parental decision making. Numerous studies have found that after social transition, transgender youth report similar mental health levels to the general youth population, eliminating mental health disparities typically seen. When transgender youth are affirmed by people around them, reported rates of depression and suicidality drop significantly. This rule will deny them this life-saving treatment.
The Board must provide truthful information based on science and data as opposed to false statements based on prejudice and political agendas. The evidence is clear: denying transgender youth the ability to transition is dangerous, abusive, and life-threatening.
I urge you to reject this proposal.