By Jaimie Seaton
“I feel like a political pawn, because there’s so much talk about trans people and so much legislation passed around it, and it just feels like we’re being used as a scapegoat and just someone to put the blame on and hate on in society,” said Romana, in an online forum for transgender youth hosted by Uncloseted Media in June.
The virtual event gave Romana and four other transgender teens and young adults an opportunity to discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling which upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care (GAC) for minors. GAC includes social, medical, behavioral and psychological interventions that help transgender individuals align their gender identity with their physical bodies.
The case, United States v. Skrmetti, focuses on Tennessee, but the ruling effectively upholds bans on puberty blockers, hormones and transition surgery for youth in 25 other states. (Bans in Arkansas and Montana have been halted permanently by court order.)
Transgender people, particularly youth, are under attack by their government. If that sounds hyperbolic, consider this: In 2021, 144 anti-trans bills were introduced in state legislatures, making it a record year. So far in 2025, a staggering 972 bills have been introduced in 49 states—and 121 of them have already passed.
In addition, President Trump has signed four executive orders specifically targeting trans people and seven targeting the LGBTQ+ community at large. Perhaps most heinous, in June, Trump shut down special services for LGBTQ+ youth, which was part of the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline—a move that seemed to be purposely cruel.
“This is part of a systemic effort to push trans people out of civic life,” says Harper Seldin, senior staff attorney for LGBTQ+ issues at the American Civil Liberties Union, who is trans himself. “It is a playbook [used with abortion] that is now being followed by some states, and the federal government to try to decrease people’s ability to access this care.”
The state and federal assault on trans people’s rights has caused widespread fear, uncertainty, upheaval and anger in the trans community. Adults and families with children seeking GAC have moved from tightly restricted states to those with more lenient laws and attitudes—though even those states are rolling back access to care—and some have fled the country entirely.
Social workers can provide invaluable, possibly life-saving support to trans people and their families as they learn to navigate a newly hostile terrain that wasn’t exactly hospitable to begin with. But they need to tread carefully—especially if they work across state lines—given the fluid nature of the laws.
Read the full article at the NASW Social Work Advocates magazine.
