Anti-Trans Healthcare Bans Have ‘Striking’ Impacts on LGBTQ+ Adults, HRC Report Finds

Human Rights Campaign building insert c Washington Blade by Michael Key — Human Rights Campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C. Photo: Washington Blade, Michael Key

Published: August 22, 2023 | Last Updated: September 1, 2023

Christopher Kane | Washington Blade

Courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association

According to findings from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 17th Annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey, the proliferation of bans on gender affirming care in conservative states have had “striking” impacts on “the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ adults.”

For example, 79.1 percent of respondents reported feeling less safe as an LGBTQ+ person as a result of these health care restrictions, while nearly half said the policies affected the physical and/or mental health of themselves or their loved ones.

Some of the specific negative consequences of gender affirming care bans, 80.5 percent of respondents said, include the worsening of “harmful stereotypes, discrimination, hate, and stigma against the LGBTQ+ community.”

HRC conducted the survey, which included more than 14,000 LGBTQ+ adult participants from all 50 states and D.C., in partnership with Community Marketing and Insights, publishing the findings in a report released on Thursday.

The group noted more than 80 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were passed in statehouses across the country so far in 2023, including bans on guideline directed gender affirming health care that are now enforced in 19 states — which, collectively, are home to a third of all trans youth in the U.S.

Along with addressing the survey questions, participants submitted written responses that provide more information and context about the ways in which their lives have been impacted by the anti-trans legislation.

For example, the survey’s finding that more than half of transgender and non-binary adults nationwide “would move — or already have moved — from a state that passed or enacted a gender-affirming care ban” is preceded by a quote from a trans/nonbinary man about the emotional decision of having to flee his home state:

“My home state, where I no longer live, is one of the states most affected by the wave of
legislation,” he said. “My community there is in so much pain, and it pains me very much that I may never be able to visit home again.”

Anti-trans policies have profoundly shaped how LGBTQ+ adults organize their lives, the data shows, influencing decisions about where they live, work, go to school, and spend their money.

HRC’s report includes a section on Florida, noting it had issued a travel advisory on the risks of visiting or relocating to the state as a result of the “extremely anti-LGBTQ+ agenda” pushed by its Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who, by running for president, “has threatened to bring his discriminatory policymaking to the national level.”

“I feel like I am losing my basic rights over my body and my right to exist in public spaces,” wrote a transmasculine/nonbinary Floridian. “I feel dehumanized.”

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