Transgender Lamb
Copyright David Hayward, nakedpastor.com. All rights reserved. Used by permission
A United Methodist Insight Editorial
Suppose your child had sickle cell anemia, a genetically transmitted disease, but you were unable to get your child needed medical treatment because your state had outlawed it?
Suppose your wanted your daughter to be immunized against Human Papilloma Virus, a virus linked to cervical cancer that can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, but your state outlawed it?
Or suppose you simply wanted to get your child vaccinated against a host of childhood diseases, but your state had outlawed vaccinations?
Twenty state legislatures currently are considering bills that would prevent transgender children and youths from obtaining health care such as hormone treatments. In Texas for example, Senate Bill 1646 and its companion House Bill 4014, would classify such medical care for transgender children and youths as “child abuse,” thus turning parents seeking treatment for their transgender children into criminals. (For details on other states’ bills, see Freedom for All Americans, legislation tracker).
There’s no reason for any of these bills except fear and prejudice against transgender persons.
There’s so much we don’t know about the spectrum of human sexuality. Over the past 30 years, medical science has determined that being gay or lesbian or bisexual isn’t a “lifestyle” to be adopted but an inherent trait like brown eyes or left-handedness. Transgender people have a gender identity that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth, a disconnect between their body types and the gender they experience psychologically.
The titles of these state bills – often couched as “child protection” – and their backers’ rationales aren’t medically supported, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. America’s top pediatricians are working to ensure that transgender and gender-diverse children and youths receive the medical care they need and deserve. NPR reports: “This month [April], the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement calling bills that prohibit trans medical care, or that ban trans girls from women's sports teams, ‘dangerous.’ The academy warned that the bills ‘[threaten] the health and well-being of transgender youth,’ and concluded, ‘Politics has no place here.’"
Given the nature of these anti-trans bills and the speed with which they’re being pushed through legislatures this spring, it has become imperative that United Methodists press their state governments to “do no harm” to transgender children, youths, and their families. Sadly, because of its prejudice against LGBTQ persons, The United Methodist Church lags behind medical experts in affirming transgender persons and in recognizing that gender dysphoria – which the Mayo Clinic describes as “the feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics” – is a treatable medical and psychological condition.
There’s so much we don’t understand yet about human sexuality physically and psychologically. What we do know is that common platitudes used against transgender persons such as “God doesn’t make mistakes” and binary thinking that divides humans into only two genders are unsupportable theologically because they fail to acknowledge the imago dei (image of God) in all persons. No matter what, a transgender child or youth is still a human being whom God loves unconditionally, and one for whom health care is deemed a fundamental right (United Methodist Social Principles, Paragraph 162C). We contend that the genuine child abuse in these anti-trans bills isn’t getting medical care for transgender children, but the imposition of a ban that deprives transgender children and youths of the health care they need and deserve.
Now is the time for United Methodists to protect transgender children from such abuse and to defend transgender persons everywhere. If you live in one of the states listed below where anti-transgender legislation is proposed, we urge you to contact your legislators and oppose these bills. Children and youths need our protection from this prejudice right now.
States with legislation pending to outlaw medical care for transgender children and youths:
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
West Virginia
See Also:
Why People of Faith Support Nondiscrimination Protections for LGBTQ Americans – Freedom for All Americans
This Record-Breaking Year for Anti-Transgender Legislation Would Affect Minors Most – CNN
New Poll Shows Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Anti-Transgender Laws – PBS
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011