Top Federal Health Official: Goal Should Be To 'Support and Empower' Trans Youth
Dr Levine's statement comes in response to a Biden administration setback in court
The goal of healthcare for the nation's transgender youth should be to “support and empower” these young people, who, today, too often face an onslaught of legalized oppression and discrimination in much of the United States.
That's the message from the top health official within the federal Department of Health and Human Services, who herself, is a transgender woman.
A federal judge in Tennessee temporarily blocked Biden administration directives allowing transgender workers and students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
Dr Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health and the highest-ranking transgender American ever to win US Senate confirmation, reiterated the Biden administration's intentions following the ruling by Judge Charles Atchley Jr. of the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Atchley ruled on Friday that the administration's directives would make it impossible for some states to enforce their own laws on transgender athletes' participation in girls' sports and access to bathrooms.
A number of states whose state governments are dominated by Republicans have begun passing laws banning the participation of trans athletes on the teams of their identified gender as well as prohibiting trans youth from access to any gender-affirming care at all in those states.
“So we really want to base our treatment [on] and to affirm and to support and empower these youth, not to limit their participation and activities in sports, and even limit their ability to get gender affirmation treatment in their state,” she said.
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