Caffeinated Politics

The news from late last week continued an ongoing conversation about the need for transgender minors to be allowed to have gender-affirming care. This should be a no-brainer, but in our current political climate, it is a battle needing to be waged.

A coalition of more than 65 Wisconsin organizations, including the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center, are demanding UW-Health and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to re-instate gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The two hospitals stopped providing that care in January after the Trump Administration threatened to cut Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that continued.

In a letter to the CEOs of UW-Health and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the organizations say in part quote, “The provision of gender-affirming care is how we ensure Wisconsin’s transgender young people can become the healthy adults and compassionate leaders we know this state needs…”

I had a conversation early this year with a woman from our neighborhood, which really made an impact on me. The woman said there is a moment every parent recognizes that you are not just raising a kid, but a human being who trusts you to help them become themselves. The mom has a child who does not fit neatly into one of the prescribed boxes that some in our society wish all people to fit into. As I talked with this parent, it was easy to strip away the hearings, the headlines, and the culture-war pressure campaigns from the right. What was left was what mattered. a parent knowing she wanted to provide her kid with the best medical advice and care possible. She was tired of her kid in the culture‑war crossfire.

We are all aware that UW-Health and the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin are under intense scrutiny for pausing gender‑affirming care for minors. What I am so proud of and moved by are the people who are stepping up to make a difference for these kids. So many caring, empathic adults advocating for gender-affirming care. The reality is that these minors need talk therapy, family counseling, and, in those cases where medical professionals know it is advantageous, puberty blockers. Every major medical organization in the country supports this care as evidence‑based and, in many cases, life‑saving. Not life‑improving. Hear me now. Life‑saving.

When hospitals pause gender-affirming care because of political pressure, those lives don’t pause with them. The anxiety doesn’t pause. The dysphoria doesn’t pause. The self‑harm risk doesn’t pause. Only the support does.

We all have been kids with all sorts of issues to confront. I cannot fathom denying a kid who feels trapped in a body that is not the correct one a medical physician. We certainly recall how it feels to be shy and awkward. Now ponder how it might feel to be a kid with trans issues who, for the first time, can talk with a doctor, someone who listens in a way no one before has been able to do.

After talking with that parent at the start of the year, let me add that you might consider her, and scores of others like her, too. When parents see their child laugh again and bloom with hope, well, that lights up the whole home.

That is why I am proud of the people working to stop the cessation of gender-affirming care. I am glad to know of the growing number of reasoned people who agree that parents — not politicians — should guide their trans children’s medical decisions with the help of trained professionals.

I know kids are not reading this column. But if they were, I want them to know you’re not alone. You are not a debate point or a political prop. You are not a problem to be solved. You are a person. Valued. We are striving to make Wisconsin better for you.