A Year After a Virginia University Cut Trans Youth Care, Its Own Scholars Publish Study on Harms of Transphobia

A year after Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital ended its gender-affirming care program for transgender youth, researchers from the same institution have released a study measuring the negative impacts of anti-transgender legislation on the health of trans people in the U.S.. The study, published in the September issue of American Psychologist, the official peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Psychological Association, is a mixed-method examination of the effects of bathroom bans, exclusion from sports, and gender-affirming care restrictions on trans and gender nonconforming people. Researchers established that over tangible 2,000 legislative and policy-based actions have attempted to limit the rights of trans people in recent years. Researchers looked at qualitative and quantitative data from a sample of 350 trans and gender diverse people about their mental health and stress levels during this wave of anti-transgender policymaking. The findings suggest that anti-trans laws and policy efforts directly cause mental distress for trans people, especially as it regards daily safety, fears about harassment, and stress about relocation in order to access care.“This study suggests that ongoing antitransgender political efforts are linked to elevated psychological distress among transgender and gender-diverse individuals, regardless of state-level laws based on gender identity,” the researchers wrote. Several participants said that they felt that the mere existence of such legislation enabled people to mistreat them through misgendering and other forms of daily anti-trans discrimination. The study also found that this fear of discrimination and harassment led trans people to avoid social interactions.The participants of the study were over 18, however, experts such as Eli Coston, Associate Chair of the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, say that these anti-trans laws have a disproportionate impact on trans minors, who have been the