Encouraging Leaders to Strengthen Protections

Legislators, from Texas, Georgia and Kentucky, seeking to criminalize the actions of health care providers who provide necessary health care services and treatment for transgender youth, threaten the lives of children, and perpetuate a culture of transphobia and oppression.

Transgender individuals experience interpersonal violence and discrimination at rates vastly higher than cisgender individuals. The impacts of violence and discrimination further contribute to high rates of suicidal attempts among individuals who identify as transgender.

Adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria often also experience anxiety and depression. Medical treatment, such as puberty-suppressing hormones, is an important part of scientifically recommended treatment plans. Denying access to necessary medical treatment by implementation of criminal laws penalizing health care providers endangers the health and well-being of trans adolescents. On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, we encourage leaders to focus efforts on strengthening protections for individuals who identify as transgender rather than limiting access to necessary services.

The National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence Across the Lifespan (NPEIV) is an overarching group of individuals, organizations, agencies, coalitions, and groups that embrace a national, multidisciplinary and multicultural commitment to violence prevention across the lifespan. NPEIV is committed to reducing interpersonal violence and its consequences through scientific research and application of empirical findings. It is our mission to make the prevention of interpersonal violence a national and international priority and to encourage healthy relationships by linking science, practice, policy and advocacy. Through our many partnerships and collaborations, it is our vision to end all types of interpersonal violence, for all people, in all communities, at all stages of life.