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CHARLESTON, W.Va. \u2014 Nearly 400 medical professionals in West Virginia have signed onto\u00a0a letter\u00a0condemning\u00a0a bill\u00a0advancing in the state House of Delegates that would bar transgender youth at risk for suicide from accessing medical interventions like hormone therapy.<\/p>\n
Advanced to the full chamber by a House committee on Friday, the proposal would completely ban minors\u2019 access to hormone therapy and puberty blockers, removing a\u00a0narrow exemption passed by lawmakers last year\u00a0that allows kids at risk for self-harm and suicide to receive care.<\/p>\n
Signers of the letter published Monday by the state\u2019s only LGBTQ advocacy organization, Fairness West Virginia, include doctors, psychologists, social workers, nurses and medical students.<\/p>\n
Fairness West Virginia Communications Director Jack Jarvis said the organization planned to present the letter to delegates at the state Capitol in Charleston on Tuesday, the day before the bill is scheduled to be up for a vote.<\/p>\n
The swell of support the letter has received from medical professionals in the 72 hours since the bill was approved by the House Health and Human Resources Committee is telling, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, I\u2019ve never seen this level of support come together so quickly,\u201d Jarvis said. \u201cHealthcare providers all across our state realize just how dangerous this bill is \u2014 they understand the stakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up to 2% of adolescents in the United States identify as transgender, and in any given year a third of them may attempt suicide, the letter states. Research shows that transgender youth who access gender-affirming hormone therapy have 73% lower odds of considering suicide, it says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many cases, this care can be life-saving,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n
At least 23 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits. Lawmakers in West Virginia and other states advancing\u00a0bans on transgender health care\u00a0for youth and young adults often characterize gender-affirming treatments as\u00a0medically unproven, potentially dangerous\u00a0and a symptom of \u201cwoke\u201d culture.<\/p>\n
Every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, supports gender-affirming care for youths.<\/p>\n
After the bill passed the committee on Friday, Lead Sponsor Republican Del. Geoff Foster said the law would be better, \u201cmore clear and concise\u201d without the exemption, saying what will help reduce suicide rates is treatment for depression.<\/p>\n
He may not believe in people receiving hormone therapy or puberty blockers, he said, but those 18 and older can make their own decisions, not kids.<\/p>\n
Fairness West Virginia Gender Policy Manager Isabella Cortez, who is transgender, said it doesn\u2019t feel that way to her: \u201cThey don\u2019t want trans people to exist, kids or adults. Their goal is to get rid of us entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jarvis said that last year\u2019s bill has already forced dozens of families with the resources to move out of state to leave West Virginia. He said he knows others who have been denied access because the exemption in existing law is already so narrow. The 2023 law requires parental consent and a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoria from two medical professionals, both of whom must provide written testimony that medical interventions are necessary to prevent or limit possible or actual self-harm.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear what the chances of passage are for the bill. The House of Delegates passed a similar measure last year, but it was significantly altered by Republican Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, a physician who expressed concern about the high suicide rate for transgender youth.<\/p>\n
Takubo, a physician, cited more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies showing a decrease in rates of suicide ideation and attempts among youth with severe gender dysphoria who had access to medication therapy.<\/p>\n
Gender dysphoria is defined by medical professionals as severe psychological distress experienced by those whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com\/resources for additional resources.<\/em><\/p>\n If you are an LGBTQ young person in crisis, feeling suicidal or in need of a safe and judgment-free place to talk, call the TrevorLifeline now at 1-866-488-7386 or the Rainbow Youth Project at 1-317-643-4888.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] CHARLESTON, W.Va. \u2014 Nearly 400 medical professionals in West Virginia have signed onto\u00a0a letter\u00a0condemning\u00a0a bill\u00a0advancing in the state House of Delegates that would bar transgender youth at risk for suicide from accessing medical interventions like hormone therapy. Advanced to the full chamber by a House committee on Friday, the proposal would completely ban minors\u2019 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}