'It helps me be myself': trans kids on the healthcare Republicans want to deny them

Doctors and families say wave of bills to ban gender-affirming care dangerously misrepresents the treatment process

Lawmakers in Arkansas are voting this week to restrict medical care for transgender children and punish doctors who treat them, in one of more than a dozen US states where Republicans are pushing sweeping bans on trans youth healthcare.

Proponents of the healthcare bans argue that kids are too young to consent to treatments like hormone therapy and puberty blockers and that the bills aim to prevent medical experimentation" on children. Some bills claim that trans kids will outgrow" their identities.