“Attacking trans children is an attack on the rights of LGBTI+ people”: why the LR law is far from protecting children

On Tuesday 19 March, Senator Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio, who was against the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution at the beginning of the month, pledged Figaro regarding a proposed law. This aims to prohibit any “ hormonal or surgical transition before age 18 “. The text, which will be presented” In short », is based on the conclusions of a working group launched last May by the LR senators on the topic “transidentification of minors”.

Reflecting a right-wing obsession with issues related to gender identity, the senator’s statements also reveal a clear misunderstanding of the topic in a context of transphobia, specialist associations say. Spotlight on OUTrans, a trans feminist self-help association.

Three questions a Anaïs Perrin-Prevelle, Director of the OUTrans association.

To miss. What is the purpose of this bill?

AP-P. This is actually the French transposition of the anti-transidentity (and anti-gender) campaigns that we see in the Trumpist states of the United States, in Putin’s Russia or by conservative movements in Europe. Every time science is abused for ideological reasons. And we see it in the report supporting the bill and giving a platform to science naysayers. Doctors who treat trans people unanimously believe that transience is neither a problem nor a mental disorder. But their word is ignored.

This bill also seeks to circumvent the law banning gender identity-related conversion therapy among trans youth. The senator campaigned – and voted – against this ban. She then became the voice of groups that oppose the treatment of trans minors such as the Little Mermaid Observatory.

And, through the attack on trans children, it is the rights of LGBTI+ people that are under attack (after all, the leaders of the Manif pour tous have their place in this movement), and women’s rights by contesting gender studies (the senator voted against abortion in the Constitution).

Do the senator’s statements reflect absolute ignorance on the matter?

AP-P. There is a theoretical approach to transience, ultimately very ideological. The senator has never hidden that she is against gender identity. In the debates over the law banning conversion therapy, you have also proposed amendments to remove gender identity from the law because you don’t know what it is.

She rides on fears, giving the impression that all trans kids are automatically given blockers or hormones as soon as a question about gender is asked. Keeps operations unclear. In fact, in France, genital operations are not performed on trans minors. The number of trans children taking blockers – as noted in the report – is extremely low. For example, at the Pitié Salpêtrière in Paris, which brings together people who often come from outside the Paris region, only 239 children were followed in 10 years and only 11% were given blockers… out of 16 million minors in France!

Deep down, the authors of this report, that is, the Little Mermaid Observatory who participated in all the hearings, just like the senator, are afraid of transience. And being afraid of trans people is etymologically being transphobic.

Supporters of this bill argue that it is about “protecting children.” Why doesn’t this argument hold water?

AP-P. The report, in its introduction, its inventory and its conclusions, as well as the proposed law, does not once mention suicide rates among trans people, and particularly among young people. Yet they are extremely tall. All studies point in the same direction: between 30 and 50% of trans people have already attempted suicide (a move to action), when in the overall population we are rather around 5%.

It’s not being trans that leads to suicide. It is a society that still too often believes that being trans is not a good thing, it is a serious thing, it is madness… Studies – and our experience – show that the longer we wait to consider a person’s gender identity, the greater the mental health risks. And on the contrary, the vast majority of people who make a transition believe they live better afterwards (for example, 98% of people who took hormones according to the regulations). 2022 US Trans Survey).

The bill wants to prohibit talking about transience in schools, to recognize the gender identity of children, and even goes as far as wanting “protect same-sex spaces”i.e. ban trans people from using their gender bathrooms! In fact, it is a matter of adding discrimination, legally legal, to that which we already suffer.

It also wants to ban medical transitions among trans minors, under the guise of protecting children and avoiding possible regrets. Again this is a fantasy. First of all because the intake of hormones is perfectly reversible. Just like breast surgeries. Then because the detransitions agitated by the anti-transidentity movements are not proven. On the contrary. Among people taking hormones, it would be less than 1%. Less than 1% risk of regret but with a possible flashback compared to 30-50% risk of suicide. In the latter case there is no going back.

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