€Œi Had to Fight for This!â€� Implications for Youth, Caregivers, and Providers amidst Attacks on Gender-Affirming Care

To date, 44 states have introduced bills to restrict LGBTQ+ rights during this legislative session, encompassing bathroom bans, participation in sports, drag storytelling, and life-saving gender-affirming care. Legislation undermining the rights of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals increases with each news cycle, yet the National Association of Social Workers remains markedly absent amidst myriad healthcare professional organizations – such as the American Psychological Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, and World Professional Association for Transgender Health – affirming the need for gender-affirming services, citing medical necessity. This roundtable seeks to invite colloquy regarding these contentious issues, focusing not only on adolescents and young adults (AYA), but also their caregivers and providers. As TGD identities become increasingly more visible, so too do they become more vulnerable; it is imperative to consider the social, legal, clinical, and ethical challenges for various stakeholders. In this anti-trans legislative landscape, social workers are uniquely positioned to mitigate between policy and practice, and are called upon to interrogate positionality — spanning from gatekeeping to safeguarding — for gender-affirming practice. The panelists in this roundtable share a deep-seated commitment to reflexive intersectional inquiry, spanning considerations across the life cycle for patients, and moral implications for providers. Moreover, panelists have conducted various mixed methods of inquiry into the harmful impacts of anti-trans legislation, as well as sources of resilience. The first speaker will discuss the relevance and importance of gender-affirming care for young people in rural/midwestern states, as well as implications for researchers and social work educators therein. The second speaker will focus on the intersections of challenges faced by TGD individuals in health care, including racialized TGD people, disabled TGD people, and different genders within the TGD population. The third speaker brings expertise in housing instability/homelessness among TGD young people, with attention to systemic barriers rooted in cisnormativity. In addition, they can share research and conceptual frameworks regarding the need for far upstream intervention in expanding binary thinking, as it relates to service provision for TGD young people. The fourth speaker will focus on multi-level interventions to improve mental health and relationship wellbeing for TGD involved in child welfare and juvenile legal system court. Their current research focuses on the importance of peer support models and the need for connections within the broader LGBTQ+ community. The fifth speaker will discuss not only their research agenda, but also their familiarity of navigating systems as the mother of a transgender child; they bring direct experience navigating schools and healthcare institutions, organizing and supporting parents of transgender children, The overarching goal of this roundtable is to discern next steps for social work research, education, policy, and practice regarding democratizing knowledge to support AYA, families, current social workers, and educators of future providers.