Transgender youth
According to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, appropriate care for transgender youth may include supportive mental health care, social transition, and/or puberty blockers, which delay puberty and the development of secondary sex characteristics to allow children more time to explore their gender identity.
[citation needed] Research has overwhelmingly indicated that familial support and acceptance of transgender youth have resulted in more positive life outcomes for the individual regarding their mental, physical, and emotional health.
[21] Behaviors such as physical or verbal harassment, pressure to conform to gender norms, and excluding the youth from family events will lead to higher health risks such as depression and suicide.
[25][26][27] Short-term side effects of puberty blockers include headaches, fatigue, insomnia, muscle aches, and changes in breast tissue, mood, and weight.
[28] The potential risks of pubertal suppression in gender dysphoric youth treated with GnRH agonists may include adverse effects on bone mineralization.
[36][37][38][39][40][41][42] In Bell v Tavistock, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that it was unlikely that a child under the age of 16 could be Gillick competent to consent to puberty-blocking treatment.
[45] Under American Psychiatric Association criteria, in order for any individual to receive these medical treatments, they must have a written diagnosis of gender dysphoria and have undergone up to a year's worth of therapy.
To change an existing gender marker and name in the United States, applications can be filed for driver's license, social security card, banking documents, and passport.
[62] A lack of support at home and constant harassment at school may lead to academic difficulties for the youth as well, who face a much higher dropout rate compared to their cisgender counterparts.
[19] Reasons for home insecurity among LGBTQ+ youth include family rejection and conflict, domestic violence, and difficulty within various institutions such as school or the foster care system.
[69] A 2019 study of 6th through 12th grade transgender students in the United States showed that most experienced a hostile school climate with regular victimization and harassment from peers.
[71] Restrooms and locker rooms pose an especially high threat to transgender students, who frequently report fear and anxiety about using these facilities at school because of experiences of harassment by both peers and adults when using them.
Negative comments about gender presentation may be frequently overheard in these places, and surveyed students have reported being "pushed around", "getting the crap beat out of them", and "getting their asses kicked" by peers.
[71] In one study of transgender youth, three-quarters of the participants dropped out of school, almost all citing the main reason for the constant acts of violence against them due to their gender identity.
[77] Transgender youth may face victimization from peers and family members' negative reactions to their atypical gender presentation, increasing their risk of life-threatening behaviors.
[84] A separate 2022 study of American transgender adults found that receiving GAH at an earlier age was correlated with lower suicidal ideation and psychological distress.
[89] In a 2009 survey, some juvenile detention centers stated that they already had difficulties housing girls and boys on the same campus and that mixing transgender youth according to their identified gender in one dormitory would only create more problems.
Malta and the United States of America are two examples of countries where legislation and social acceptance levels have curated a safer environment for transgender individuals.
[96] In Jalisco, following a decree on 29 October 2020, trans children and teenagers from all Mexican states were able to change their legal gender with parental consent, but since the implementation of new legislation in April 2022, recognition of transgender identities has been limited to people over the age of 18.
[104][better source needed] For those who are not minors, they are able to participate in any body-altering transitional experience that they desire if they are able to financially afford it and after going through a year of therapy to affirm this decision, but they will have to jump over several hurdles for it to also be legally marked.
[105] During the first four months of 2021, there was a wave of legislation aiming to restrict access to gender-affirming healthcare treatments for transgender youth, as 28 Republican-controlled state legislatures have drafted or passed a number of bills of this sort.
[106] In April, Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, which banned medical treatment and procedures for transgender youth under the age of 18.
The law warns health care providers that administering procedures such as puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries can result in losing their medical license.
[106] Opponents of the bills criminalizing transition-related treatment for transgender youth are concerned that they prevent doctors from following health care guidelines approved by organizations like the American Medical Association.
[107] Health and Human Services' (HHS) reversal of the Affordable Care Act, Section 1557, was backed up by landmark Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) that ruled that LGBTQ individuals are protected against employment discrimination on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
[107] HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement: "The Supreme Court has made clear that people have a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex and receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.
[115][116][117][112][113] These studies have been used to argue for more caution or delays before allowing transgender children to socially or medically transition,[118][114][119] but have later been criticized on a number of evidentiary and methodological bases.
These studies have primarily been criticized as irrelevant on the basis that they counted as "desistance" cases where the child was not dysphoric, but rather simply behaved in a manner atypical of their assigned gender.
The studies published from the 1960s to the 1980s never used the term "desistance", instead focusing on "gender-deviant behavior" – childhood femininity in people assigned male at birth – and how this more often predicts homosexuality than "transsexualism" in adulthood.
[118][114][119][120] The film Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink) (1997) by Alain Berliner follows a young child named Ludovic, who is assigned male but who lives as a girl and tries to make others agree with her identification.
