Arkansas and the Politics of Experimenting on Children
by Mark Regnerus, Public Discourse:
The Arkansas legislature knows something the governor apparently does not: hormonal treatment of adolescent gender dysphoria yields little across samples and studies. Transgender youth medicine involves numerous known and serious risks that are already identifiable, while the long-term effects and possible harms of off-label drug uses are completely unknown.
Last Tuesday, the Arkansas House of Representatives voted 72-25 to overturn Governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto, while the Senate did so by a vote of 25-8. While these margins are hardly narrow, the way forward will be widely contested by media mischaracterizations, deep-pocketed medical organizations’ proclamations, and the growing reach of corporate threats.
Hutchinson’s veto was predicated on the idea that it was legislative overreach to obstruct the doctor-patient (and family) relationship, while the legislature’s primary narrative revolved around longstanding objections to medical experimentation on minors. Both notions have merit to them. But the legislature knows something the governor apparently does not: hormonal treatment of adolescent gender dysphoria continues to yield little demonstrable benefit across samples and studies, save perhaps for idealized self-image—a subjective outcome once considered unworthy of dramatic intervention. Critics will claim otherwise (they already are), and will seek to weaponize the risk of suicide in a manner long considered dangerous and unethical.
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