TAMPA, Fla. — As a parent, looking out for your children is always your top priority.
That’s certainly true for Dr. Robin Hauser, who’s a general pediatrician. She also has a transgender daughter.
“It wasn’t something that my husband and I took lightly,” said Dr. Hauser. “We looked to the specialist. We had therapists. We made sure that we did everything correctly so that, ultimately, my child was happy and healthy.”
Now, there’s a worry for some families with arecent executive order regarding gender-affirming care.
The order says it's the policy of the United States that it won't "fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support" the transition of a child from one sex to another and that it will enforce all laws that "prohibit or limit" these procedures.
It defines children as people under 19 and refers to care like puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries.
“I have a child that’s transgender that’s doing so much better in the past three years since she’s received gender-affirming care,” said Hauser. “She’s now a sophomore in college and doing great in school and has her group of friends, and it’s just night and day difference. I have my kid back, and as a mom, that’s all you want for your child.”
Jennifer Solomon, Equality Florida’s Parents and Families Support Manager, said at the end of the day, it should be left to a patient, their family, and their healthcare professionals.
“The suicide rate for our children is extremely high, and we know by providing gender-affirming care from all the major medical associations that say this is life-saving care,” said Solomon. “I think the misconception is that this is something that parents, A, take lightly, and B, that it’s always medical. That it’s perhaps surgeries and medical intervention, and that is not always the case. In fact, that is not the case for our youth.”
Dr. Hauser thinks there’s lots of misinformation out there, too.
“I think people think that using puberty blockers and estrogen or puberty blockers and testosterone is unsafe, but we use those drugs safely for other conditions, so we have some kids that go through puberty prematurely, and in order for them, we want to slow down their growth so they meet their adult height and they’re healthy, we actually give them puberty blockers to slow down that puberty so they’re able to grow and reach their adult height,” said Hauser. “If we can do that in them safely, we can certainly do that in transgender individuals safely.”
Now, families are waiting for what comes next.
“I think as human beings, we need to be ultimately allowed to be who we are,” said Dr. Hauser. “We need to be our person and be happy.”
Equality Florida also wants people to know they have resources available to families, like their Parenting with Pride program.
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