A new bill has been passed in the Idaho House of Representatives recently which aims to ban gender reassignment surgeries and hormone treatment for youth. This bill, if passed in the Senate, could have many negative impacts on youth who may be one sex but identify with a different gender identity.
According to the World Health Organization, gender and sex are two separate terms with two separate meanings; gender refers to how someone presents themselves socially, such as masculine or feminine, while sex refers to biological and physiological characteristics, such as reproductive organs.
However, there are also cases of intersex individuals, who have characteristics of both male and female sexes, such as hormones like testosterone or estrogen.
An individual can have the characteristics of one sex, but socially identify with another gender, which can create feelings of stress and anxiety in an individual. Gender reassignment can ease or even stop these feelings by helping the individual change the biological characteristics of their sex to the characteristics of another sex.
Gender reassignment surgery is used by more than just intersex individuals, however. The surgery can be useful for individuals who may have the biological and physiological characteristics of one sex, but fully identify with another gender.
Hormone treatment comes before gender reassignment therapy for most individuals. According to the Mayo Clinic, hormone treatment is used to create physical changes in an individual’s body to better align with their gender identity. Such treatment can start with the use of hormone blockers to stop the changes in an individual’s body that may not align with their gender identity.
Hormone treatment, however, doesn’t affect characteristics such as reproductive organs or other physical sex characteristics;this is where gender reassignment surgery is used instead. According to the Cleveland Clinic, there are three types of reassignment surgery.
The first is facial reconstruction surgery, meant to change the facial structure to look more feminine or masculine. The second is chest, or what is considered top surgery, where the breast tissue is adjusted to create a figure in line with the individual’s gender identity. The last type is genital, or bottom, surgery, which is a surgery to transform the genitalia of an individual.
The Idaho House of Representatives introduced a bill on Feb. 2 that affects what doctors can do to children regarding genitalia and hormone treatment. House Bill 71 starts with an outline of what it prevents doctors from doing to minors.
When looking at the bill, it becomes apparent that it was meant to be a bill targeted towards transgender youth but was instead played off as a blanket bill with the mention of circumcision at the beginning of the bill. Circumcision may not have anything to do with transgender youth, however, the bill prevents it from being performed on children under the context of genital mutilation.
This bill passed mostly along party lines with a vote of 58-12 in the Republican-controlled house. The only Republican representative to vote no on the bill was Rep. Matthew Bundy, R-Mountain Home.
Many arguments against gender reassignment surgery bring up concerns about whether an individual knows what they’re doing, particularly if they’re young.
For individuals who opt to transition, they generally think over the choice for years, weighing all of their options, before making the decision. According to a study done by the National Library of Medicine, out of 27,715 individuals asked, only 2,242 said that they detransitioned. Out of these 2242, roughly 82.5% said that they detransitioned due to external factors, such as pressure from family or society.
Transgender youth also have one of the highest suicide rates out of any other youth group. According to a study done by Sage Journals, around 80% of transgender youth have had suicidal thoughts, and 40% have attempted suicide at least once.
The influences behind these suicidal thoughts tend to fall in the same category as those that influenced detransitioning; this includes familial and societal pressure as well as a stigma that the individual may hold against themselves.
With the inevitable ban that this bill would incorporate, social and governmental pressure on transgender youth will increase. Idaho isn’t the only state introducing and passing these types of laws, either; multiple other Republican states, such as Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have similar laws outlawing hormone treatment and gender reassignment surgeries.
House Bill 71 now moves onto the senate for them to vote on it. The first reading happened on Feb. 15, it was then referred to judiciary and rules where it will be either approved to go to the senate or debated on publicly.
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