Policy attitudes toward adolescents transitioning gender.

Abstract

Anti-transgender policies and state legislative initiatives that focus on school bathroom use and hormone use have emerged in recent years. These policies are generally written by and voted on by cisgender people, and as such, it is crucial to understand influences on nonaffirming attitudes toward policies that can impact trans youth. The present study aimed to extend research on transphobic attitudes in general to attitudes toward policies that impact youth undergoing transition. Latent variable covariances and structural equation modeling were used to test the relations between transphobia, genderism, homophobia, need for closure, sexual orientation, social dominance orientation, attitudes toward sexual minorities, beliefs about gender roles, aggression, religious fundamentalism, and contact with sexual and gender minority individuals, as they are related to attitudes toward hormone use and bathroom use for trans youth. Analyses of data from a sample of 248 cisgender adults indicated that genderism and transphobia was associated with attitudes toward gender-affirming hormone use and bathroom use for trans youth; need for closure was associated with gender-affirming attitudes toward bathroom use, but was not associated with hormone use. Sexual orientation was linked to attitudes toward gender-affirming policies, such that nonheterosexual participants had more affirming attitudes toward trans youths' bathroom use, but not hormone use. Implications for future research, advocacy efforts to promote rights for trans youth, and clinical work with trans youth and/or parents/guardians of trans youth are discussed. Public Significance StatementThis study advances the understanding of factors related to supporting affirming social and medical transition for transgender youth. It demonstrates the role of transphobia and the need for closure as they relate to nonaffirming attitudes.

Fluidity in Reporting Gender Identity Labels in a Sample of Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents and Young Adults, Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana, 2017-2019

“…To develop tailored prevention programs, we must be able to describe the fluidity of gender identities and how these identities change over time. This critical area merits attention and additional research, considering the unprecedented increases in antitransgender legislation and violence that further threaten the health and well-being of TGD adolescents and young adults in the United States, 16 which is occurring in parallel to the increase in young people embracing TGD identities. 1 The main objective of our study was to recognize and examine the fluidity in gender identities that is common among TGD adolescents and young adults and consider the implications of this fluidity in gender identities for health and prevention efforts.…”