April 9, 2024
Contact: ASA Communications Department, [email protected]
WASHINGTON, DC—While the visibility of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) Americans continues to increase, there is a growing wave of public policy that seeks to reverse the civil rights achievements of TGD people.
These discriminatory policies increasingly target TGD youth specifically, denying them access to rights, services, and resources that allow them to live happy, healthy, and dignified lives and ultimately doing real harm to themselves, their families, and their communities. Although supporters of these policies say that their purpose is to protect youth, the consequences are just the opposite: they increase the risk of stress, negative physical and mental health outcomes, and victimization for TGD youth and their families.
The American Sociological Association has released a sociological guide designed to provide clear, accessible, and up-to-date information that helps the public—including parents, teachers, religious leaders, legislators, and policymakers—better understand TGD youth, the policies that target them, and the harmful consequences of those policies.
Through the broad sociological perspective offered in this guide—one that focuses on complex connections among public policy, interpersonal relationships, individual behaviors, and social inequality—our goal is to provide readers with tools to see past the reductive stereotypes often used to justify the restrictive and discriminatory policies that target TGD youth and ultimately help mitigate their negative impact among TGD youth.
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About the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.