Help protect trans kids and save lives by getting involved with adovacy against youth care bans.
- Get connected with
- Advocacy Training
- Local, on-the ground leads for the organized response
- Your local Equality Federation
- Your local ACLU
- Your local LGBTQ+ Nonprofit
- Get prepared
- Know the legislation your testifying against
- Read the proposed legislation
- Review the proposed legislation summary with your local on-the ground legal partners (see above)
- Review good source material that address frequent points in care bans
- watch Dr. Meredith McNamera– at the FLBOM hearing
- read Science Based Medicine Gender Affirming Care is Not Experimental
- this is my long ass response to the FLBOM
- Know your citations
- Jack Turban’s The Evidence for Trans Youth Gender-Affirming Medical Care
- Citations Since Then:
- Chen D, Berona J, Chan YM, Ehrensaft D, Garofalo R, Hidalgo MA, Rosenthal SM, Tishelman AC, Olson-Kennedy J. Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones. N Engl J Med. 2023 Jan 19;388(3):240-250. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2206297. PMID: 36652355.
- Tordoff DM, Wanta JW, Collin A, Stepney C, Inwards-Breland DJ, Ahrens K. Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Feb 1;5(2):e220978. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.0978. Erratum in: JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jul 1;5(7):e2229031. PMID: 35212746; PMCID: PMC8881768.
- Olson KR, Durwood L, Horton R, Gallagher NM, Devor A. Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition. Pediatrics. 2022 Aug 1;150(2):e2021056082. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-056082. PMID: 35505568.
- Lieke J.J.J. Vrouenraets, Martine C. de Vries, Irma M. Hein, Marijn Arnoldussen, Sabine E. Hannema & Annelou L.C. de Vries (2022) Perceptions on the function of puberty suppression of transgender adolescents who continued or discontinued treatment, their parents, and clinicians, International Journal of Transgender Health, 23:4, 428-441, DOI: 10.1080/26895269.2021.1974324
- Clara De Castro, Mireia Solerdelcoll, Maria Teresa Plana, Irene Halperin, Mireia Mora, Laura Ribera, Camil Castelo-Branco, Esther Gómez-Gil, Angela Vidal, High persistence in Spanish transgender minors: 18 years of experience of the Gender Identity Unit of Catalonia,Revista de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, 2022,ISSN 1888-9891, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsm.2022.02.001
- Draft Your Testimony
- Time yourself reading it to fit the testimony slot
- Have it proofed by your on-the ground team
- Day of
- Show up early (virtually or IRL)
- Center your authoritative knowledge, training, and experience balanced with your compassion and empathy
- There are a lot more tips here- but I recommend you have those through training with orgs listed above. My brief list for myself is:
- Don’t answer hypotheticals
- Don’t answer with a yes or no when being asked for a yes or no
- Use questions to gently educate. “Thank you for asking this question because it gives me an opportunity to correct…”
- Self-care
- You are NOT responsible for the passing or prevention of this legislation
- Plan to care for yourself and refills your resiliency wells
- Know the legislation your testifying against