The so-called “Mississippi Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act” by Republican Senator Charles Younger, attempts to criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender youth by adding financial barriers to its layers of inaccessibility, and spreading misinformation about transitioning through its medicalization of transness.

The act attempts to strip trans youth’s right to autonomy and self-determination through a patronizing lens that labels children as “vulnerable”, claiming that they need to be ‘saved’ from being who they are. It claims lifesaving care like puberty blockers and hormones are ‘experimental’ and ‘risky’ while simultaneously allows provisions for possibly imposing the gender binary on intersex youth.

It also proposes to prohibit insurance coverage for trans youth in need of gender-affirming heathcare, and follows another common theme of erasure and misgendering in these legislative attacks: it doesn’t use the word “transgender” even once.

This act attempts to erase trans identities by conflating transness with mental distress, to dismiss the barriers – like this act itself – that are making it impossible for trans people to be who they are.

Trans youth know who they are, and this legislation’s spread of disinformation is putting lives at risk: 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.

MS SB 2728 was referred to committee on January 17th, 2022. If it is enacted, it would be enforced on July 1st, 2022.

Read more stories by trans folks on how gender-affirming care has been lifesaving: https://bit.ly/33K8DK9