For the last two years, Koen has routinely self-administered weekly testosterone injections without a second thought.
During that time, the trans 17-year-old said his self-image and school and family life has drastically improved. His fear of needles, too, has faded.
“[Transitioning] made me look forward to things more because now I can start paying attention to the better version of myself,” said Koen, who asked to be identified by his first name because of fears for his safety. “It’s something I feel like I’ve needed for a while. I’m able to express myself more fluidly and feel comfortable doing that, which I think is a very big step for me right now.”
At the start of the year, though, a greater worry emerged.
A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect on Jan. 1 prohibiting puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-reaffirming surgery. Now, Koen isn’t sure he could continue his hormone treatment.
Louisiana is one of 22 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, disrupting health care needs for trans and nonbinary people.
Okay sure so with your updated comment not going through puberty will have some mental and physical effects. That’s obvious though since well, so does puberty, that’s the point of it happening. Not going through puberty will obviously mean you won’t experience the results of puberty.
What hormone blockers do is allow people to postpone puberty which is exactly what people like you should want trans kids to do. They get to decide what they want when they are older not have an irreversible puberty forced upon them. I’m not of the mind that we need to force trans kids to wait until they are an adult but that’s the obvious argument you should be making, not prevention. Trans kids will exist even if you remove access to horome blockers you just make their lives worse for no reason.