Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate coalition to defend against a challenge to Arkansas’ law that stops experimentation on children experiencing gender dysphoria. In the scientific community, the general consensus has been that more research is needed before providing children with potentially irreversible “gender-affirming care,” such as providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgical interventions. Multiple studies show that most childhood gender-identity issues resolve naturally with time, and that it is impossible to know ahead of time which child’s symptoms may persist into adulthood, warranting further treatment.
The medical evidence also shows that nearly all children whose gender dysphoria is treated with puberty blockers to “buy time” will proceed to take cross-sex hormones and seek other medical interventions with irreversible, lifelong consequences—complications such as infertility, loss of sexual function, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, bone-density problems, risk of altered brain development, social harms from delayed puberty, and mental health concerns.
Read the full Amicus Brief here.
