Trans clinic appeal ruling that stopped doctors from prescribing puberty-blocking drugs
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Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania now offers hormone therapy for transgender and non-binary patients
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Even though there s more visibility than ever for the LGBTQ+ community, coming out can still be difficult. If you re a parent of someone who recently came out, here s what you should know and how you can offer your support.
The average age of coming out gets younger each generation
, but the LGBTQ+ community still experiences discrimination.
Research suggests that children and young adults are coming out at younger ages and in greater numbers than earlier generations. According to a 2013 Pew Research Study, the median age LGBTQ+ people reported coming out to others is 20 years old. Individuals who are transgender (those whose gender identity is different from the gender they were assigned at birth) and non-binary (those whose gender identity isn’t exclusively male or female) reported coming out at an average of 18.5 years old, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
After the Keira Bell verdict
An English ruling on transgender teens could have global repercussions
Worries grow over treatments that can leave children sterile
I
N 2018 ANDREA DAVIDSON’S 12-year-old daughter, Meghan, announced she was “definitely a boy”. Ms Davidson says her child was never a tomboy but the family doctor congratulated her and asked what pronouns she had chosen, before writing a referral to the British Columbia Children’s Hospital (
BCCH). “We thought we were going to see a psychologist, but it was a nurse and a social worker,” says Ms Davidson (both her and her daughter’s names have been changed). “Within ten minutes they had offered our child Lupron” a puberty-blocking drug. “They brought up the drug directly with our child, in front of us, without discussing it with us privately first.” There was no mention of other mental-health issues, which are known to increase the likelihood of gender dysphoria, the feeling that you are in the wrong