‘We’re on the edge of chaos’: families with trans kids fight for care as bans take hold | US news

ARin Cavano was sitting in her living room in South Carolina When her 17 -year -old daughter entered the room and said: “I am really afraid. I think people will die.” Catherine, who uses her middle name to protect her, told Cavano that she believes that sexually transgender young people may be a target of violence due to hatred from hatred created by Donald TrumpThe last procedure.

On January 28, Trump released Executive order to ban access To take care of asserting the gender of youth under the age of 19. Federal agencies have directed the refusal of financing for institutions that provide confirmed gender medical care, including hormones and puberty blockers.

I felt that the world was collapsing around it. Kavano, one of the parents, told two converted children, so we talked about it and tried to remain very positive. “I think she really feels as if we were on the verge of chaos.”

In a victory for transitive children and their families, a federal judge in Maryland I banned the ban On March 4. The preliminary implicit order extended in mid -February that prevented Trump’s direction and will remain in effect until another order from the American provincial court of Maryland. Meanwhile, the government is prohibited from blocking federal financing for healthcare facilities that provide treatment for transient youth.

However, the executive order sent parents, children and medical principles to the tail of the tail while deciphering. some Hospitals Immediately Outplayed dates It turned away the new patients to commit to the guidance. In early February, Catherine was dropped as a patient in Virginia Commonwealth UniversityShe received gender confirmation after South Carolina banned hormonal therapy, surgery and puberty of puberty of youth last year. Some parents say that the mental health of their children has decreased strongly in the weeks that followed the executive. As a result, families have made great efforts to ensure their passing children continued care, including thinking about moving abroad or storing adulthood.

“We have seen dozens of families affected throughout the United States, in many states that left and abandoned them without care they need,” said Omar Gonzalez Bagan, chief adviser and health care strategies at Lambda Lambda Legal. “This is an illegal executive because it seeks to overcome the congress authorization of the federal financial assistance condition for non -discrimination, and this seeks to request discrimination as a condition for federal financing.”

Stop followed a suit It was presented on February 4 by civil rights organizations including Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the transgender youth. ACLU officials told the Guardian newspaper that they expected a preliminary judicial order through court actions.

Some hospitals that stopped providing care for young youth after the direction of January, such as Children’s Los Angeles Hospital and Children’s Hospital in Richmondfor Limits raised on surgeries or Hormonal In late February. Cavano said it was “comfortable and hope” about the first bargain South Carolina banned On the health care of young youth, which was signed in the law last year.

Her 18 -year -old son Parker and Catherine received a treatment at South Carolina Medical University and then a private clinic in the state for several years until Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s ruler, I signed the law A prohibited gender care for the transit minors in May 2024. Parker is now old enough to receive his care in South Carolina, but the prohibition of the state means that the family had to lead more than five hours per road to the University of Virginia Commonwealth for the appointments of Catherine Doctors every few months.

The dropping of it as a patient due to the federal ban “puts us in a very difficult place because we are already forced to find care outside South Carolina. This only limits our options. Catherine doctors have delivered it to a special medical practice in Verfax, Virginia, which does not receive federal financing, so they managed to avoid the separation in its care. While the change in service providers did not cost more money, but that It spanned more than seven hours.

In late February, Catherine’s treatment was resumed banning adulthood at the University of Virginia Commonwealth. in statementThe hospital said that patients will continue medications, but surgeries will remain suspended. The treatment of children converted is still obligatory as it challenges federal challenges through the court.

“Psychological losses”

studies Ownership He appears This gender medical care greatly improves the mental health of people and the quality of life. 2022 a report It was published in Jama Network Open Data from a study that included 104 transgender young people between the ages of 13 and 20 years who have received hormonal treatment or adulthood blockers at the Seattle Children’s Clinic for a year. The researchers found that 60 % of the participants reported low depression rates and 73 % had lower possibilities of suicide thinking and self -damage after receiving gender confirmation hormones and puberty.

Black transgender peopleThose who suffer from the stigma of cross -shame of being a variety of gender and ethnic minorities, are at greater risk of mental health. A 2022 National Survey Of the 33,993 LGBTQ youth by the Trevor project, a non -profit organization, it was found that one in four of the sexual transgender and non -black youth tried to commit suicide last year, more than twice the rate of their counterparts in Cisgender.

“It is already difficult to reach health care and treatment. Harper Seline, a great lawyer for ACLU employees, said that it is more difficult for people who belong to other marginalized societies, especially families and colored children, as well as people who have different forms of insurance funded by the country and may find it difficult to choose service providers.

There is already a sub -set of sexual clinics in this country that provides this care. When you lie above this insurance and reach the family, it is especially destroyed for families who can not only pick up and go to another place – to a city, another country or another country – to get care. “

While the care of her transit daughter was not directly affected by the executive system, Sarah, a mother in Texas, who asked her last name to protect the privacy of her daughter, said that her daughter Raven was destroyed by the president. RAven, a 16 -year -old black girl in Texas, used a pseudonym, she left the school last month because of her low mental health, which was exacerbated by the federal ban. Sarah said that Ravin rarely got out of the bed, and when she did that, her sister’s news reports on girls and black women crossed.

“She told me that she is afraid to kill her if she left the house,” Sarah said. “It will really leave the house with me only. But this is very little and mutual, because it suffers from an incredibly depression.”

Since she got out of school, Sarah said depression and anxiety in Raven decreased dramatically, and plans to start the GED test semesters during the summer.

In November 2024, the LGBTQ+ Human Rights Campaign released LGBTQ+ a report This showed that half of the 36 transgender people who have been killed in the past 12 months have been crossed. Sarah said this reality made it terrifying that Raven lived as a black girl.

RAven medical service providers have increased with an antidepressant dose, and she is now checking with her psychiatrist every three weeks. Since last year, Raven had to travel to Colorado every six months to receive gender care for a Texas Ban On treatment for minors. She received grants from the non -profit campaign on southern equality to finance travel for medical treatment, which helped to postpone some high costs to search for care outside the country.

Sarah said that she had searched to live in other countries and would be ready to ask for medicine from Canada if RAven has no longer obtained a medical treatment in Colorado. Gender care has greatly improved Raven’s life. “She feels more of herself,” Sarah said. “If you don’t have, I don’t think she will choose to survive.”

Mobility in the restrictions of medical care causes anxiety over parents who carry the burden of policy transformations and turns of their children. One of the 11 -year -old parents in Georgia, Peter Ispestter, said that he chose not to share the news of the executive order with his 11 -year -old transient son, who uses a pseudonym for fear of harassment: “He was affected by his parents on his parents, and not on him.”

The endocrine specialist currently monitors the levels of the hormone Lev to determine when it will be placed on adulthood. Isbister, lawyer and founder of the alert peer support network, a transparent Atlanta Metro, must face the Federal Executive Order and The ban on the horizon On adulthood for minors in Georgia.

“If the draft law passes in Georgia, we will really have a family to study more seriously on how he works to be a person outside the state to obtain care in California, New Mexico, Massachusetts or anywhere,” said Ispestter. “The higher the number of countries that restrict access to care, the more difficult it is.”

As a result of federal and state policies, Espester said he spoke with the immigration lawyer about obtaining Canadian citizenship for his son. But at least at the present time, Lev’s clinic continues to provide care for it.

While Espester was “encouraging” because of the judge’s order for the executive order, he said that “it is assumed that it is not fair that my ability to provide my children’s health care is a problem for our federal courts.”