For the last two years, Koen has routinely self-administered weekly testosterone injections without a second thought.

During that time, the trans 17-year-old said his self-image and school and family life has drastically improved. His fear of needles, too, has faded.

“[Transitioning] made me look forward to things more because now I can start paying attention to the better version of myself,” said Koen, who asked to be identified by his first name because of fears for his safety. “It’s something I feel like I’ve needed for a while. I’m able to express myself more fluidly and feel comfortable doing that, which I think is a very big step for me right now.”

At the start of the year, though, a greater worry emerged.

A new law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Louisiana took effect on Jan. 1 prohibiting puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and gender-reaffirming surgery. Now, Koen isn’t sure he could continue his hormone treatment.

Louisiana is one of 22 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for minors, disrupting health care needs for trans and nonbinary people.

    • @Red_October
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      1711 months ago

      The fucked up part is that they literally are proud of this.

      • @afraid_of_zombies
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        1211 months ago

        Sure. Apologists will tell you that there was some pure form of Christianity that was good and it got corrupted in recent times by its alliance with the political right. History doesn’t tell us that. It has always been a tool of oppression.

        I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.

        -Fredrick Douglass 1845

        Over a century prior to the Jerry Falwell moral majority. In1845 the Christianity presented was viewed as a temporary oddness not aligned with the real Christianity.

        Heck even in the letters of Paul, decades before any Gospel accounts he talks about homosexuals going to hell and how people deserved death for not giving the church money.

        It was always a shit cult that attacked the vulnerable. Always willing to punch down. “Slaves obey your masters!” It declares.