Chair Narcisse opens Hospitals Committee remarks on gender-affirming care
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse introduces herself as chair of the Hospitals Committee and names the co-chairs. She defines gender-affirming care and describes higher anxiety, depression, and suicidality among transgender and nonbinary youth.
Hi, good afternoon.
I am Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse, Chair of Committee on Hospital.
I'm joined by my colleagues, Councilmember Tiffany Caban, Chair of the Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use, and Councilmember Amanda Farias, Chair of the Committee on Women and Gender Equity.
Thank you for joining us today for this oversight hearing on access to gender-affirming care and associated with mental health outcomes for transgender and non-binary youth.
Gender-affirming care is a model of care that includes medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical.
services to support and affirm an individual gender identity.
This type of care can include social affirmation like adopting gender affirming hair, clothing, and names, or medical affirmations such as
puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender affirming surgeries.
Transgender and non-binary youth experience significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and suicidal ideations than their
cisgender peers, largely due to stigma, discrimination, and social rejection and barriers to care that this individual's experience.
Research shows that access to gender-affirming care
can substantially improve mental health outcome for transgender and non-binary youth.