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When we need medical advice, who should we turn to: a doctor or a politician?
None of us would answer “politician.”
We all know doctors aren’t perfect. But when it comes to medical issues, we all trust them a million times more than politicians. Rightly so.
And if thousands of doctors give the same medical advice, you can bet it’s the best medical advice currently available. Regardless of what any attention-seeking politicians may say. That’s just our common sense.
Yet, when it comes to some medical issues, some unscrupulous politicians try to derail our common-sense thinking about medical advice. And, bizarrely, some folks then seem to believe politicians with no medical training whatsoever before they’ll listen to the advice of thousands of doctors.
Gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the United States is one prominent example.
The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry all support access to evidence-based, developmentally appropriate, gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
In the US, transgender youth typically undergo months or years of comprehensive evaluation by medical professionals before any medical interventions are initiated.
How can any politician claim to know better about such things? How can anyone else believe the politician over the doctors? How can the issue of people’s medical care get tossed around like a political football in the “culture wars” without any regard for the needs of the people most concerned?
Whatever the answer to these questions, the current anti-trans hysteria in the US is ruining people’s lives.
Laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth are inflicting severe harm on young people and their families.
Under the Trump administration, families are being pushed to the brink. They’re forced to navigate impossible barriers to medical care. Meanwhile, the federal government intensifies its assault on transgender rights.
The laws and the poisonous rhetoric contribute to an increasingly hostile, anti-trans climate. Young people feel forced to hide their identities and socially withdraw. There’s increased anxiety, depression, and suicide attempts.
To start undoing some of this devastation, it might help if we all remember our common-sense thinking on medical advice.
We trust doctors over politicians for our medical care. It really is that simple.
