OSLC and ODI fully endorse and want to elevate this statement recently put out by the American Psychological Association (APA; see below). The statement from the APA asserts that gender affirming medical care is a critical and evidence-based way to provide transgender youth with high-quality mental and physical health care.
In our organizations we are also working to support and uplift transgender youth and the transgender community as a whole in the following ways:
1. By providing education to our staff on gender identity, sexuality, and gender expression.
2. By working to create a welcoming and gender affirming environment for our staff and the communities we work with.
3. By taking a critical look at ways within our research to support and uplift the transgender community. This includes looking at how we design our research projects (e.g., how we ask questions/how we present information) and also what research we choose to pursue (e.g., what questions we ask/what topics we investigate).
| STATEMENT OF APA PRESIDENT REGARDING CALL BY TEXAS GOVERNOR TO ‘REPORT’ PARENTS OF TRANSGENDER CHILDREN
‘Ill-conceived directive’ would put at-risk young people at higher risk WASHINGTON — Following is a statement by Frank C. Worrell, PhD, president of the American Psychological Association, condemning a directive from Texas Gov. Greg Abbot calling on “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to report the parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving gender-affirming medical care: “This ill-conceived directive from the Texas governor will put at-risk children at even higher risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide. Gender-affirming care promotes the health and well-being of transgender youth and is provided by medical and mental health professionals, based on well-established scientific research. The peer-reviewed research suggests that transgender children and youth who are treated with affirmation and receive evidence-based treatments tend to see improvements in their psychological well-being. “Asking licensed medical and mental health professionals to ‘turn in’ parents who are merely trying to give their children needed and evidence-based care would violate patient confidentiality as well as professional ethics. The American Psychological Association opposes politicized intrusions into the decisions that parents make with medical providers about caring for their children.”
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| The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA’s membership includes over 133,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s lives. |
We would also like to highlight additional statements of support for transgender rights from scientific and professional practice organizations:
APSAC: https://www.apsac.org/_files/ugd/c59607_b29b6dcd47cb45de990c036250eabe8a.pdf
SRCD: https://www.srcd.org/news/srcd-statement-support-transgender-and-gender-diverse-children-and-youth
Note: This statement was released in response to a policy other than the Texas directive described above.
Note: This statement was released in response to a policy other than the Texas directive described above.