Last week, 58 transgender adults including actor Elliot Page, director Lilly Wachowski and activist Major Griffin-Gracy filed an amicus brief advocating for trans youth’s right to access gender-affirming care in Arkansas, in response to a state law banning the lifesaving care.

The adults have received gender-affirming care like hormone blockers and surgeries, with time periods of access ranging from one year ago to sixty years ago.

“Many amici who began receiving gender-affirming care as adults wished they had begun transitioning earlier and believe that earlier care would have prevented years of distress, greatly enhancing their well-being,” the brief states. “Amici who began treatment while young universally described profound joy for having transitioned and no regret for having done so.”

Arkansas became the first state last year, to pass a law banning doctors from providing gender-affirming healthcare including reversible puberty blockers and hormone therapy to trans youth. The law was blocked from going into effect and is now being debated in courts, following a challenge to its constitutionality, filed by ACLU in a lawsuit representing four families of trans youth and two doctors.

More than half of trans children were at risk of suicide this past year, and access to gender-affirming care is linked to being at lower risk of attempting suicide by nearly 40 percent in transgender and nonbinary youth, according to Trevor Project.

Spread over 20 states, the amicus brief signatories come from different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. They are parents, children, partners, friends, siblings, mentors. They are teachers, scientists, artists, athletes, layers, faith leaders, frontline workers and software designers. The youngest is 21, the oldest is over 70.

Here is a summary of stories and testimonies by the amici about gender-affirming care. Follow along to understand how critically life-saving and fulfilling it is, to access this care:

Actor and producer Elliot Page, known for his roles in The Umbrella Academy and Juno described his experience after top surgery, saying “I couldn’t believe the amount of energy I had, ideas, how my imagination flourished, because the constant discomfort and pain around that aspect of my body was gone.” —Cont..