California (USA) is regarding to pass a law that would make it a “refuge state” and host for trans children who cannot undergo gender reassignment treatments or surgeries in other parts of the country.
Gender-affirming practices through surgery or the use of hormones are illegal in states like Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Idaho, and Arizona, with criminal consequences for parents who allow their children access to such treatments.
Since June, the bill SB-107 tries to make its way to exempt from legal responsibility those parents from any part of the country who authorize their children to access those services in California, even if they later return to their states of origin.
If passed, this legislation would prohibit any state authority from ordering the separation of children from their parents if the parents consent to any method of gender affirmation of their children in California.
Likewise, it does not contemplate the arrest or request for transfer of an individual for allowing his son to receive this care on Californian soil.
The initiative, which has been promoted by San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener, of the Democratic Party, was approved by the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly, and will be put to a vote in the plenary session of the Lower House soon.
Organizations such as Equality California and Planned Parenthood endorse this state bill, which they describe as “hopeful” and consider that it will end the “criminalization of people just for being who they are.”
The measure also has detractors from conservative sectors in California and has generated great controversy in recent weeks.
From the organization Parents with Inconvenient Truths regarding Trans (parents with uncomfortable truths regarding transsexuality) they affirmed to Efe that for them it is “a scandal”, because, in their opinion, “the majority” of minors who will request gender-affirming treatments really they suffer from a temporary “adolescent” dysphoria.
Dysphoria is a psychological disorder that causes anguish and anxiety in those whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex at birth.
“Support, yes. Love yes. A therapy that allows them to explore why they feel this way, yes. But this type of operation, no, because they suppose an authentic kidnapping of minors, ”said Gigi LaRue, representative of Our Duty USA, an association of parents once morest gender ideology, in an interview with Efe.
LaRue (a pseudonym she uses to, according to her, avoid “retaliation”) emphasized the consequences of hormonal treatments and sex change operations, because “when testosterone and estrogen are administered to the opposite sex, they can cause problems of health for life”.
Charlie Jacobs (also a pseudonym), of Our Duty USA, wanted to emphasize that they are “for gay marriage and equal rights” and that their position is not politicized.
“The human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25, so I would advocate exercising extreme caution and raising the legal age for making the decision to undergo these treatments to 25,” LaRue said.
According to a study by Detrans Awareness, another organization once morest these procedures, 70% of people undergoing surgery do not solve their mental health problems following changing their sex and some even regret it.
Data that contrasts with that of the academic journal The Journal of Sexual Medicine, which with samples taken up to 2015, calculates the number of trans women who are not satisfied with their transition at 0.6%. A statistic that stands at 0.3% in the case of transsexual men.
For the therapist Calista Termini, a member of the Los Angeles Gender Center, “there is a great ignorance” on the part of many parents who “do not really know” their children or how they feel.
“It will be important that there is good communication because there are a large number of cases in which minors do not want to undergo a sex change operation and seek only hormonal treatments,” Termini told Efe, adding that for this reason “the most The important thing is that they feel accepted.”
A position shared by Mariana Marroquín, program manager of the Los Angeles LGTB Center organization, from where she provides legal and psychological support to trans people who are in situations of extreme vulnerability.
“Above any law, parents must love their children. I assure you that they do not prefer that they end up lying on the street, suffering from violence, alcohol or drugs”.
