A few months after Samira, a 16-year-old transgender girl in Florida, started taking hormones to change her gender, she was stopped in her tracks by the Florida medical board’s ban on health care for transgender youth.
In an interview with ABC News, Samira said, “The day before the policy went into effect, I was suddenly and without warning dropped from my provider, and I had to scramble to get a meeting to clear that up.”
She says that the wave of policies and laws across the country that try to limit gender-affirming care for trans people has hurt not only her ability to get care but also her mental health.
“It’s been hard, but it’s been great to have a goal, the ability to fight back, and the drive to do that,” Samira said.
She is going to be one of the hundreds of protesters who will march in 50 states to honor the International Transgender Day of Visibility. Queer Youth Assemble, a nonprofit run by young people to give the queer and trans community “joy and autonomy,” is in charge of the project.
Queer Youth Assemble is also getting more and more people to sign a list of demands. These demands include getting rid of all kinds of conversion therapy, doing more research on trans health, and passing or codifying laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
Co-founder of Queer Youth Assemble Esmée Silverman said that attitudes against transgender people have brought her back to an “extremely dark place.”
“It’s disappointing,” Silverman, who is 21 and uses they/she pronouns, said. “It has not only changed how I think about people, but it has also taken me back to a very dark place in my life: my freshman year of high school when I was suffering and didn’t want to live.
Silverman said that their mental health got better after they got gender-affirming care, which trans and nonbinary youth can’t get in at least 11 states in the U.S. Some conservative politicians have been trying to pass laws that hurt the LGBTQ community. As a result, the community has been hit with a lot of hate, with LGBTQ people being falsely called “pedophiles,” “groomers,” or linked to violence.
“My ability to start hormones got me out of that dark place, and taking that away from so many young people in this country is going to make their lives worse,” Silverman said.
Studies, like one published in JAMA Surgery, have shown that gender-affirming care can save the lives of transgender and nonbinary children and teens by improving their mental and physical health.
Transgender teens and young adults are more likely to feel anxious, and sad, and think about or try to commit suicide. This is often because of gender-based discrimination and gender dysphoria.
Silverman and Samira say they want the march to show queer and transgender youth that the community is strong and united against hate.
Samira’s journey of figuring out who she is was much easier with the help of her community and family.
“I think that having a supportive family was a big part of why I was as safe as I was,” Samira said. “But I think a lot of transgender kids would be a lot happier, even without hormones, if they had families like mine.”
Silverman said, “Even if you’re in the worst places, you’ll never be alone. You’ll always have a group of people who love and support you, no matter where you go.”
“Because one day there will be a world where queer and trans youth aren’t forced to be activists and can follow their dreams as filmmakers, chefs, web designers, and artists, there will be a world where adults don’t assume what queer and trans youth are, but instead ask queer and trans youth who they are.”
