Anti-trans bills heap misery on kids

+ getting past climate despair US Edition - Today's top story: Indiana, Iowa and Texas advance anti-transgender agendas – part of a longtime strategy by conservatives to rally their base [View in browser]( US Edition | 4 March 2022 [The Conversation]( I’m far too old to remember what being a teenager is like. But I can only imagine that it is a pretty bloody miserable existence for many, what with the academic pressure, social anxiety and the awkwardness of puberty. So it isn’t entirely helpful when grown men and women in legislatures across the U.S. deliberately make the lives of some of those youngsters that much harder. Which brings me to Iowa, Illinois and Texas. Earlier this week, politicians in the Prairie State advanced a bill banning transgender girls from competing in what are deemed to be girls sports. Iowa went one step further and signed a similar bill into law. Meanwhile, it emerged that parents of trans kids in Texas had been investigated for child abuse over providing puberty blockers and other gender-affirming medical care. Civil rights scholar Alison Gash notes that it is a [boom time for such initiatives](. Driven by Republicans as a way to galvanize their conservative base, 2021 was a record year for anti-trans bills – and the rate is picking up even more this year. And it’s the kids that suffer. Preventing transgender kids from accessing gender-affirming care is associated with [heightened risks of depression and suicidality](. Stopping them from competing with their peers serves no real purpose other than to ostracize. 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