Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trans Youth 'Hounded' By State Anti-Trans Laws: Assistant Health Secretary
NPR: Rachel Levine Calls State Bills Dangerous To Transgender Youth
The highest ranking transgender official in U.S. history will give a speech in Texas Saturday, urging physicians-in-training to fight political attacks against young trans people and their families. Adm. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health, will make a speech in Fort Worth at the Out For Health Conference at Texas Christian University. In prepared remarks shared exclusively with NPR, she writes: "Trans youth in particular are being hounded in public and driven to deaths of despair at an alarming rate. Fifty-two percent of all transgender and nonbinary young people in the U.S. seriously contemplated killing themselves in 2020. Think about how many of them thought it was better to die than to put up with any more harassment, scapegoating and intentional abuse." (Simmons-Duffin, 4/29)
The Hill: Top Biden Health Official Says Trans Youth Being ‘Driven To Depths Of Despair’
Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine said trans youth are being “driven to depths of despair” and committing suicide at alarming rates, during a speech on Saturday about the dangers of anti-trans laws being passed in red states across the country. Levine, the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, said in a speech at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth that LGBTQ youth are being “attacked” and have “few places to turn” for help. (Dress, 5/1)
Dallas Morning News: In Texas, Transgender Official Says Science Is Being ‘Politically Perverted’ To Attack LGBT People
The nation’s top transgender official came to Texas this weekend to call out what she called the political perversion of medicine and science and urge doctors to stand up against attacks on LGBT Americans’ access to health care. “The truth we need to confront now is that medicine and science are being politically perverted around the country in ways that destroy human lives,” Dr. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant health secretary, said Saturday at a conference on LGBTQ health care hosted by students at Texas Christian University School of Medicine in Fort Worth. (McGaughy, 5/1)
Axios: DOJ Challenges Alabama Law That Bans Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth
The Justice Department filed a complaint Friday challenging a recently enacted Alabama law that criminalizes certain types of gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The DOJ alleges that the law, one of dozens targeting trans youth across the country, "discriminates both on the basis of sex and on the basis of transgender status, each in violation of the Equal Protection Clause." (Chen, 4/29)
In news on other LGBTQ+ matters —
Bloomberg: Transgender Youth Care Specialist Gordon Quits As Texas Hospital Chief
The chief pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, who specialized in care for transgender youth, has resigned about six months after being named to the job. Catherine M. Gordon recently wrote an article in support of providing care for transgender adolescents, a practice Texas Governor Greg Abbott is trying to criminalize. A spokesperson for Texas Children’s, one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the country, said the resignation was unrelated to the journal publication, which the organization “fully supports.” (Xu, 4/29)
Axios: Survey: LGBTQ Youth With Autism 50% More Likely To Attempt Suicide
LGBTQ youth who have been diagnosed with autism were over 50% more likely to attempt suicide in the past year compared to LGBTQ youth who have never had an autism diagnosis, according to a research brief published Friday by the Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth under 25. Previous studies have shown that people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have an increased risk for suicide attempts and deaths, but research on the condition has historically focused on cisgender boys. (Chen, 4/29)
