In late December, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz announced their plan to block Medicaid and Medicare funding for sex-change procedures for minors. “So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” Kennedy said. “This is not medicine. It is malpractice.” Needless to say, the proposal has been met with outrage from transgender advocates and allies. Susan J. Kressly of the American Academy of Pediatrics replied that the move would “unfairly stigmatize a population of young people.”
For me, the issue of how gender-nonconforming youth should be treated is a personal one. As a boy, I preferred Barbies to G.I. Joes and tea parties to play-fighting. My parents made clear that I didn’t have to like “boy things” to still be a boy (I can only imagine how things would have turned out differently had I been born ten years later). Yet part of me wishes they had gone further. Like other boys who aren’t into sports or rough play, I inevitably found myself drawn to playing with girls. As a result, I missed out on the crucial experience of same-sex bonding, which studies indicate is especially important during the formative stages of childhood.