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What's behind the Republican attack on trans people? [1]

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Date: 2023-04-27  

Montana Rep. and new trans hero Zooey Zephyr

In the latest salvo in the Republican War on Transgender People, the Republican-led Montana Legislature voted to bar Missoula Rep. Zooey Zephyr from the House, just as they did with the Two Justins in Tennessee.

Rep. Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman (edit: legislator) in Montana history, was barred from speaking in the Legislature last Tuesday due to her comments directed towards Republican legislatures who voted to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. Her comment that legislators have “blood on their hands” was an accurate portrayal of what would happen to trans youth who will now be denied life-saving treatment for gender dysphoria and who have a much higher risk for self harm or suicide as a result.

Her comments were deemed “hateful” by the precious snowflakes in the Legislature and she was soon censured and barred from making comments. It should be noted that 80% of Missoula voters elected Rep. Zephyr and many of them expected this sort of thing to happen given the very Republican makeup of the Montana Legislature, and the open hostility and bigotry that Republicans express towards transgender people, especially women.

The American Medical Association considers gender-affirming care not only to be helpful but the ONLY treatment for gender dysphoria, treatment that Republicans deny will help trans youth whom they see as simply being “confused” or “misguided” because Republicans fundamentally do not believe that gender dysphoria even exists.

However, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) provides for one overarching diagnosis of gender dysphoria with separate specific criteria for children and for adolescents and adults.

The DSM-5-TR defines gender dysphoria in adolescents and adults as a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and their assigned gender, lasting at least 6 months, as manifested by at least two of the following:

A marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or in young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics)

A strong desire to be rid of one’s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one’s experienced/expressed gender (or in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics)

A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender

A strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

A strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

A strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one’s assigned gender)

In order to meet criteria for the diagnosis, the condition must also be associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/27/2166207/-What-s-behind-the-Republican-attack-on-trans-people

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