This story was originally published by The 19th.
This year, states have tried to prevent transgender people from using public bathrooms and from being able to update identity documents like driver’s licenses. Legislators in multiple states are attempting to rewrite state code to define sex based on reproductive capacity, and to exclude gender identity from discrimination protections.
So far, these bills that aim to weaken civil rights protections for trans people, and to bar them from public facilities, aren’t getting very far. Only five anti-LGBTQ bills have passed into law this year, according to the ACLU, and several states that have become notorious for advancing such legislation — like Florida, Utah and West Virginia — have ended their legislative sessions for the year.
Still, these efforts would have a disastrous impact on the lives of trans adults, and medical health professionals are worried about the long-term physical and mental health effects of the ongoing political effort to restrict LGBTQ rights. What’s more, many of the active bills would create gaps in medical care for trans people during a time of heightened anxiety.
Right now, Ashton Colby feels like he’s in a state of chronic stress. As a White, 31-year-old transgender man living near Columbus, Ohio, he felt intense whiplash as state policies on gender-affirming care changed unexpectedly over the past few months.
“With my fundamental, basic humanity being up on the public chopping block and up for debate, in so many ways, I feel gutted and dehumanized and completely misunderstood for all that I am,” he said.
Colby has been stressed for a few years about anti-trans policies. But he never thought that it would be possible for trans adults to be forced to go without medical care. In Ohio, that almost happened.Republican governor Mike DeWine proposed restricting gender-affirming care for adults in lieu of supporting a statewide ban on minors’ care; but after a public outcry, the state’s health agency said it would not carry out those adult restrictions.
Colby initially thought he was going to lose his medical provider of eight years. He considered moving to Denver. He’s also worried that his ability to access the documentation he needs — and his rights as a trans person — will be at risk if Republicans win the White House and in Congress this year.
This is something that Dr. Carl Streed, president of the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH), thinks about all the time: the negative health outcomes of trans people not feeling safe while navigating society. He believes anti-trans policies will increase isolation during what the surgeon general has called an epidemic of isolation and loneliness in the United........