STAT+: Lawmakers circle parents’ rights in gender-affirming care hearing

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Thursday sought to turn around transgender advocates’ arguments that gender-affirming care is a personal health care decision.

The LGBTQ+ community has long pressed Democrats to frame their defense of transgender rights, and particularly gender-affirming care for minors, as a basic right for a person to pursue with their medical providers — and that conservative bans on access represent hypocrisy from traditionally small-government Republicans.

“There needs to be this greater emphasis on freedom … the ability of any person, young people, any parent, to make the right decisions for themselves, their families, and their kids,” said Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a network of LGBTQ-focused providers, told STAT earlier this year.

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