Emails Reveal How a Hospital Bowed to Political Pressure to Stop Treating Trans Teens
Emails Reveal How a Hospital Bowed to Political Pressure to Stop Treating Trans Teens
The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.
The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.
One Saturday morning in September 2022, Terrence Steyer, the dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, placed an urgent call to a student. Just a year prior, the medical student, Thomas Agostini, had won first place at a university-sponsored event for his graduate research on transgender pediatric patients. He also had been featured in a video on MUSC’s website highlighting resources that support the LGBTQ+ community.
Now, Agostini and his once-lauded study had set off a political firestorm. Conservative activists seized on one line in particular in the study’s summary — a parenthetical noting the youngest transgender patient to visit MUSC’s pediatric endocrinology clinic was 4 years old — and inaccurately claimed that children that young were prescribed hormones as part of a gender transition. Elon Musk amplified the false claim, tweeting, “Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?” That led federal and state lawmakers to frantically ask top MUSC leaders whether the public hospital was in fact helping young children medically transition. The hospital was not; its pediatric transgender patients did not receive hormone therapy before puberty, nor does it offer surgical options to minors.
Dear people who tell LGBT+ people that we shouldn't care what some right-wing nutters think:
This is why we have to care. What they think does affect us, unfortunately.
Someone here the other day had the gall to tell me that Trump didn't do anything to oppress LGBT+ people.
They were strangely silent after I showed them this: https://www.hrc.org/news/the-list-of-trumps-unprecedented-steps-for-the-lgbtq-community
I was going to participate in a navy program that would put me through med school. Then Trump decided to ban folks like me from the military.
As an older trans person, things were better for us before he was in office. It’s exhausting hearing one’s existence debated every fucking day, by folks who have zero idea what they’re talking about. It wasn’t illegal for me to piss at work in 2015, it is now.
I’m an adult trans man who has been on testosterone for more than a decade now, and it’s a fight to stay on my medication. I almost want to live in this fantasy world where doctors just hand out hormones and blockers like candy. But most doctors are terrified - all it takes is your hospital ending up on LibsOfTiktok or something and it’s time for the bomb threats. My medical provider is one of the few that hasn’t left my state, and if he leaves I’m fucked.
It's always "just ignore it, words can't hurt you" until people listen to those words and vote/take action.
No, words matter very much, actually. In fact, I would say words, and language, is the very basis of our civilization. Without language, there would have been nothing.
I wonder what the same people criticizing trans health care as "mutilation of children" think of intersex babies having genital surgery forced upon them to align their genitals with gender binary ideals.
And just before anyone has a chance to say it, trans healthcare for teens is okay despite them not being able to consent because if they don't choose quickly then one of the options is going to be forced upon them.
It's like a child standing on train tracks with a train speeding toward them and the child expressing that they'd like to get out of the way while people telling them "No! You're not old enough to make that decision!"
Or how about just circumcision? How is that ok?
Well they usually include exceptions or mandates for intersex “correction” surgeries in those laws so yeah that’s that.
I am amazed that health companies are not penalized for discrimination on which human beings they treat. Sorry, but that makes no sense.
the neat part is the American health care system always finds a new way of disappointing everyone.
what's truly upsetting is that the few trans people that may need to go to that hospital for the fastest health care are going to find out the shitty way they've been blacklisted.
there is probably a good legal case against this misinformation but how many trans have the time and energy to fight backdoor politics?
there is probably a good legal case against this misinformation but how many trans have the time and energy to fight backdoor politics?
That's why I give money to the ACLU
Yeah exactly, I’m trying to afford rent and stave off burnout too. I spent years doing activism but I’m almost 30 and I’m exhausted. And even when we do fight we’re a third of a percent of the population and economically disadvantaged before you take into account the expenses of transitioning (fortunately I’m past most of it, but spending my first years out of college saving up for a $20000 surgery was a serious financial hit)
And all this for what? My state government doesn’t give half a shit what we want. I’ll keep trying to vote them out but they realized they don’t even actually have to do what courts say. The courts won’t actually punish the legislature, just the state coffers if that.
Well if you decide that it’s religion you can hurt people by deciding that their medical care isn’t something your god approves of. And no you don’t need to find sufficient text or historical justification
Wasn't there a case before SCOTUS where they held only "closely held beliefs" (or some shit) was allowed?
I can't find the actual case or verbage but basically it made it possible to force, say, spaghetti monster believers to adopt laws against their beliefs. Essentially paving the way for Christian nationalism.
I wouldn't be surprised if health insurance companies in China would pull the same crap.
The hospital was not; its pediatric transgender patients did not receive hormone therapy before puberty, nor does it offer surgical options to minors.
Yo, puberty is still pretty young; late elementary school or early middle school.
Horrible. I don't necessarily advocate for transition as I'm personally neutral on the issue, but I will stand up for anyone seeking medical information or service, this is no longer the cave man times where men bricked each other with boulders when someone was hurt
Why is asking a question suddenly "amplifying the claim"? Could they not just have answered the question? It would, in my opinion, be especially interesting to know what the 4 year old "transgender patient" was treated for.
Sealioning, harassment where a person asks questions, demands debate, or requests evidence while feigning ignorance and pretending to be civil. Elon and fascists like him don't care about finding the truth or having an informed opinion. They want to confirm their view of "trans bad" by focusing on misrepresented half truths or outright lies. They ask questions and don't care for a response, because they want to promote the idea that woke adults are transing kids. It's bad faith bullshit.
They did answer the question, but the transphobes didn't listen to it. A 4 year old visited the clinic. Nothing was said about treatment. The 4 year old could have been sent away for all we know. The most that would have happened would be discussions about the kid's future when they do reach puberty, letting the parents know what that care would look like. Plus, the kid having documented trans identification so young will make a stronger case for them getting approved for care in the future.
The worst part about this nonsense is that allowing trans youth to have their preferred puberty would address the sports issue. If a trans girl experiences female puberty and not male puberty, she'll have no physical advantage over cis girls in sports. The permanent increases in height and bone structure that might affect performance in some sports wouldn't happen to her. However, it is crystal clear based on literal statements made by anti-trans activists that they don't care about sports integrity or protecting kids. They want trans people gone, and they will use state violence to keep us from living our lives