The Movement Advancement Project (MAP) released a new policy spotlight report, "Efforts to Ban Health Care for Transgender Youth."
In 2021 alone, legislatures in 22 states have introduced bills to ban best practice medical care for transgender young people with one state, Arkansas, passing such a bill into law.
This new report provides an overview of the legislative environment across the country and the harmful impacts these bills could have on transgender youth. The report also includes a summary of the best practice medical care for transgender youth that is recommended by leading medical organizations including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
This new report emphasizes the extent to which these legislative efforts undermine best practice medical care for transgender youth.
MAP's new policy spotlight report also compiles existing research about the extent of harm from banning best practice medical care for transgender people. According to the Williams Institute, an estimated 64,700 transgender youth (ages 13-17) live in the states considering this type of legislation in 2021 and thus are at risk of losing access to critical, often life-saving medical care.
MAP maintains LGBTQ Equality Maps that track these healthcare bans, but also nearly 40 other state laws and policies. These maps are updated in real-time and can be accessed at lgbtmap.org/equality-maps; "Efforts to Ban Health Care for Transgender Youth" is at www.lgbtmap.org/file/policy-spotlight-trans-health-care-bans.pdf .