Arkansas

u/Drewski posted a similar article in s/news, so I thought I'd post another one here by a left-wing outlet.

I'm a transgender Arkansan and I support this bill! Why? Children can't make these kinds of decisions! Especially sexual reassignment surgery, which I think should be banned up until age twenty-five, recognized by most scientists as the age of mental maturity.

This isn't a "transphobic" bill. Making the smoking age eighteen doesn't mean you think no one should smoke, just that you think children shouldn't smoke. Children can't make decisions like this, especially when they're permanent and irreversible.

Just like the sports bill: my conservative Senator was the only Democrat to vote for it, while the Independent J. Hendren was the only non-Democrat to vote against it. (At least that's what I believe, I didn't check every name this time, but they looked the same).

Here's an in-depth break-down of the article that took me over half an hour to write:

including reversible puberty blockers and hormones.

They might be reversible, but these can stunt a child's growth and render them incapable of ever knowing if they're actually transgender, since hormones can play a role. A lot of kids think they're trans, but grow out of it — you can't be sure until you're an adult.

The bill now heads to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican. Unless he vetoes it, Arkansas will become the first state to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth.

The Governor's veto is worthless! It only takes a simple majority to override him — and if the bill's on his desk: it already got that — so it's really just a useless, ceremonial power. This really ain't related to the topic at hand, but I wanted to get that off my chest.

Strangio and trans people in Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama are afraid of what the next week and months will look like as more states hear and pass anti-trans bills.

I really do hate slippery slope arguments. You can't argue against a good policy just because you think your opponents will pass a bad policy later.

I really worry about the fact that we're just a few votes away from some of the most sweeping and damaging and potentially genocidal laws from ever being passed

How do you go from protecting children from making choices that can ruin their lives to literal mass murder? This bill doesn't even ban SRS until ate twenty-five, which is my position — as a transwoman.

just after the bill passed the House, there were “multiple kids in our emergency room because of an attempted suicide, just in the last week.”

If you're suicidal: you don't solve that by pumping yourself full of chemicals or permanently modifying your body, you solve that by going to a mental health professional. I understand being upset over everyone disrespecting you all the time — and bullying is a major problem in schools — but I just don't see why having a penis or a vagina would make you want to kill yourself.

I will note that Arkansas requires SRS to legally change your sex marker on your birth certificate, which does push people towards having it — but the State lets you change it on your DL no questions asked; that's what I did.

It's just expected that if this passes, it will cost lives

You know what costs lives? Inadequate mental healthcare — that's what we need: universal healthcare! We don't need kids surgically modifying their genitals, we need them talking to a therapist! Go at it when you're an adult, but you've got'o wait till then.

It's already difficult enough to survive here, when they're not actively creating more laws to oppress us.

Yeah, it ain't easy, but I ain't exactly "oppressed" because children can't permanently modify their genitals. This bill doesn't ban sexual reassignment surgery, it just says you've got'o wait til you're an adult.

Strangio said Alabama’s bill, which the state Senate passed this month, is the most extreme medical bill so far, because it would ban care for trans people up to 19 years old

How "extreme" am I for wanting to ban SRS until age twenty-five? You can't call me transphobic if I'm transgender.

If either Arkansas or Alabama passes their bills, trans young people who are already receiving care will lose it, Strangio said. Zuriel Hooks, 18, a trans client of the Knights and Orchids Society, which supports trans people in Alabama, said she would be “devastated” if that happens.

You've just got'o wait a few months, but I do believe the age should be eighteen for hormones, not nineteen.

Alabama’s bill would also require school personnel to “out” students and tell their parents if they say their gender or sex is inconsistent with their assigned sex at birth.

This ain't in Arkansas' version of the bill, but I heavily oppose this, because it ain't safe! Do you want parents to abuse and murder their children? Because this is how that happens! This bill is supposed to be about protecting children, not ge'n 'em killed!

I didn't know this was in Alabama's bill when I publicly supported it (I really should've done more research), but I do support the rest of the bill, apart from the age.