Welcome to Teens in TRANSition
An advocacy and resource site for transgender teens in the US.
Trans Rights are Under Assault in America
The rights of transgender people in our country are experiencing unprecedented new threats. Since the new Presidential Administration took office on January 20, 2025, a barrage of executive orders have been aimed at minimizing transgender rights, access to medical treatment, and even our very existence. These efforts at the Executive branch level come on the heels of almost daily news headlines about yet another state legislature attempting to limit transgender teens’ access to healthcare. In fact, in 2023 alone more than 550 anti-equality pieces of legislation were introduced; of these 220 were specifically anti-transgender.
“If and when teenagers should be allowed to undergo transgender treatments and surgeries has become a raging debate within the political world.” – The New York Times, June 25, 2024
Today, approximately 39% of American transgender teens ages 13-17 live in one of the 25 states that have passed or enacted bans limiting gender-affirming care.
With more than 300,000 transgender teens in the United States, according to The Williams Institute, that means approximately 105,000 high school aged youth are being denied the basic right to access the critical medical care needed to treat their gender dysphoria and related distress.
“Gender-affirming health care saved my life and the idea of losing it terrifies me.” – transgender male “Ryan Roe,” 15, as quoted in the brief for United States v. Skrmetti
The collective impact of these state bans has had dramatic effects on transgender people and their families, forcing many families to consider life-changing moves to new states in order to access appropriate medical treatment for their children. As a result of anti-transgender legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign, anti-LGBTQ+ bias in America is on the rise.
Beyond this, doctors face hurdles in providing proper care for their patients. An Idaho state law makes it a felony for doctors to provide medical treatment to transgender patients under the age of 18, including hormone therapy.
History Is Being Rewritten
One of President Donald Trump's newest executive actions calls for the removal of all references to the terms "transgender" and "queer" from government agencies, personnel, and property—one example of how this changes how history is presented vs seen through the Stonewall Inn's web presence. The Stonewall Inn remains an extremely important icon of LGBTQ+ history and the movement for equal rights. The Stonewall Inn was declared a national monument in 2016 under President Obama. However, because Trump's new order targets government property and agencies, the Stonewall Inn is also affected by this change. All references to trans and queer people have been removed from the National Park Service's page for the Stonewall Inn and the letters "T" and "Q" have been removed from the monument. The co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, Stacy Lentz, called this an attempt to "erase trans people from history." Now is the time to stand up and not allow our identities to get erased.
PHOTO: SCREENSHOT FROM THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE'S PAGE ON THE STONEWALL INN SHOWCASING THE REMOVAL OF "T" AND "Q"(2/15/2025)
Access to Best-Practice Medical Care for Transgender Youth
KEY: BAN IN EFFECT • BAN SET TO TAKE EFFECT • BAN UNDER CONSIDERATION • RESTRICTION ON HOLD BY COURT ORDER • NO BAN
Courtesy: Southernequality.org / Infogram by Adam Polaski
Statistics
Source: Human Rights Campaign
Hate Crime
1 in 5 hate crimes being committed are against LGBQT+ people
Transphobia
Anti-transgender incidents rose by 40% from 2021 to 2022
Homocide
Almost 90 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed since 2022
We Can't Give In To These Threats
Much of the legislation banning transgender medical treatments for minors is unconstitutional as the same care is offered and available for minors who do not identify as transgender. Judge Robert L. Hinkle, a Federal District Court in Tallahassee, made this point clear in his recent June 2024 ruling declaring parts of a Florida law banning gender transition care as unconstitutional when he wrote: “The State of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment — treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity.”
Hinkle’s decision, coupled with word received in late June 2024 that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to weigh in on a Tennessee state law limiting transgender medical treatment during its 2024/25 term, offers the transgender community hope, and an opportunity for activism.
Another beacon of hope is the recent news out of Worcester, Massachusetts. The city council passed a resolution to become a sanctuary city for transgender Americans. The vote of 9 to 2 in Massachusetts' second largest city signals its desire to protect transgender people's rights and that that care for transgender people will be considered "a matter of health, privacy and equality.”
PHOTO: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES