Olivia Rine, Staff Writer
A recent VCU study showed that anti-transgender legislation causes psychological distress to transgender individuals. This follows the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU announcement to discontinue gender affirming treatments for those under 19 years old.
Catherin Wall, assistant professor of psychology at VCU, conducted the study, which and focused on examining transgender individuals and how they navigate their current environment.
“We were examining a number of factors related to psychological distress,” Wall said. “General experiences of gender-based discrimination, everyday experiences of discrimination. The study captured experiences of discrimination through a quantitative approach, focusing on how deeply people were following anti-trans legislation, as well as their anxiety regarding these legislative decisions.
Wall said the research showed that transgender individuals see anti-trans legislation as an existential threat. More than 2,000 legislative and policy-based initiatives have intended to reduce the rights of transgender individuals, according to the study.
“The quantitative approach that we took showed us that above and beyond experiences of discrimination, psychological distress was mostly driven by anti-trans news and legislation, or anti-trans legislation anxiety,” Wall said.
Anti-trans legislation affects numerous aspects of trans individuals, influencing their access to health care and nonmedical transitions, according to the study
“Several participants also discussed how legislation ‘Increased discrimination and violence,’ with one participant specifically noting that legislation was ‘Enabling and encouraging day-to-day discrimination and misgendering,’” the study stated.
Another factor causing distress among trans individuals is their fear for their safety, and oftentimes when moving from their homes to access gender-affirming care.
“One particular participant noted that they ‘have considered trying to leave this country out of fear of the future,’ and that they had ‘strong concerns of this progressing to an attempted genocide of all trans people,’” the study stated.
The rise of anti legislation has caused trans individuals to be more cautious in fear of harassment from an anti-trans individual, according to the study. These concerns often lead some transgender individuals to avoid social interactions.
The participants in Wall’s study were all above the age of 18, but Eli Coston, Associate Chair of the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at VCU, said these laws affect trans minors as well.
Coston said that for trans youth in particular, the most common treatment to receive is starting puberty blockers, a medication that stops the human body from producing the main two sex hormones, estrogen and testosterone. They said that anti-trans legislation can put transgender youth’s access to these medications at risk.
“Lack of access to gender-affirming care causes distress for a lot of trans people,” Coston said. “That can cause anxiety and depression. Obviously, going through some of those changes of puberty makes it difficult sometimes to live as the gender you identify with rather than how you present physically.”
According to Coston, hospitals at universities such as VCU or University of Virginia rely on federal funds to provide a wide variety of services, not just gender affirming care.
“By continuing to provide gender affirming care to those under the age of 19, they would risk losing funding that supports all of their patients,” Coston said.
Gender affirming care for minors is still legal in Virginia, though most providers who did provide that type of care no longer provide it because they are major hospital systems, according to Coston.
“There are still providers that provide those services, but they’re largely independent and don’t rely on federal funds,” Coston said.
Jude Fisher, a second-year music student at Bridgewater College, stated in an email that gender-affirming medical care is important for trans youth, most commonly, hormone-blocking procedures.
“Being able to medically transition, whether it’s hormones or actual surgeries, is life-saving for trans people everywhere,” Fisher stated. “Luckily for me, I transitioned pretty early in life, so I wasn’t directly affected by any of the newer legislation.”
Fisher said they find the consistent attacks on transgender people in schools worrisome, including transgender bans in schools, such as in sports, locker rooms or bathrooms.
“My heart goes out to all of the parents and trans kids brave enough to push back against school boards and state legislation,” Fisher stated. “It saddens me to see the same bills trying to be passed over and over again to hurt such a small minority of kids that just want to fit in and be treated normally.”