They Can't Even Fudge It.

When you are trying to discredit us and it comes up roses. Utah commissioned a study to determine how harmful trans healthcare but instead...

Utah lawmakers’ own study found gender-affirming care benefits trans youth. Will they lift the treatment ban?

The study was commissioned under the 2023 law that prohibited gender-affirming care for minors.

Salt Lake Tribune

By Emily Anderson Stern

May 22, 2025

Utah‘s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth was meant to be a moratorium, giving lawmakers the chance to reevaluate the policy once experts reviewed research on the impacts of treatment.

This week, nearly 2½ years after the law took effect, lawmakers received the findings of that study.

Utah health care experts concluded, in a more than 1,000-page report, “Overall, there were positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes” as a result of gender-affirming care. But some Republican legislators are already dismissing those findings.

“Young kids and teenagers should not be making life-altering medical decisions based on weak evidence,” Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, the House sponsor of the 2023 ban, and Rep. Bridger Bolinder, R-Grantsville, who chairs the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Interim Committee, said in a joint statement to The Salt Lake Tribune.

“Utah was right to lead on this issue,” they continued, “and the public agrees — polls show clear majority support both statewide and nationally. Simply put, the science isn’t there, the risks are real, and the public is with us. We intend to keep the moratorium in place.”

So it goes against the Republican mantra of how harmful trans care is... so we sweep it under the rug.

The Advocate had this to say,

A comprehensive, state-commissioned report released last week shows that gender-affirming care leads to better mental health and lower suicide risk among transgender minors. But instead of lifting the state’s ban, GOP lawmakers are doubling down on a policy that doctors, advocates, and families have long warned is putting lives at risk.

The report eviscerates the claims Republicans used to pass the ban in the first place.

“The conventional wisdom among non-experts has long been that there are limited data on the use of [gender-affirming hormone therapy] in pediatric patients,” the researchers wrote. “However, results from our exhaustive literature searches have led us to the opposite conclusion.” The study found over 230 primary studies involving 28,056 trans youth — “far exceeding” the evidence that typically supports FDA approval for high-risk pediatric treatments, including gene therapy.

“The body of evidence we have uncovered exceeds the amount of evidence that often serves as the basis of FDA approval for many high-risk, new drugs approved in pediatric populations in the U.S.,” the authors added.

Kind of exposes the lies the Republican are making about us! Their own study shows proper healthcare helps us but they are buying it. Rolling Stone magazine writes...

But according to the Salt Lake Tribune, legislators behind the ban are already dismissing the findings they asked for. In response to questions from the Tribune, Rep. Katy Hall, who co-sponsored the 2023 ban, issued a joint statement with fellow Republican state Rep. Bridger Bolinder, the chair of the legislature’s Health and Human Services Interim Committee, that dismissed the study’s findings. “We intend to keep the moratorium in place,” they told the Tribune. “Young kids and teenagers should not be making life-altering medical decisions based on weak evidence.”

Why ignore their own review? Polling, the legislators’ statement suggests. “Utah was right to lead on this issue, and the public agrees—polls show clear majority support both statewide and nationally,” Hall and Bolinder added in their statement. “Simply put, the science isn’t there, the risks are real, and the public is with us.”

Politics ahead of science! The Democrats had this to say, Utah Policy reported,

The Utah House Minority Caucus Leadership released the following statement after a new study found gender-affirming care benefits trans youth:

“More than two years after the Utah Legislature banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth, we are encouraged that Utah healthcare experts have found strong evidence of positive mental health and psychosocial outcomes resulting from this care. Originally, the harmful, dangerous, and insensitive ban was described as a moratorium while the Legislature evaluated the treatment’s impacts. Now that the Legislature-commissioned study has found overwhelmingly positive health outcomes, we must act to lift the ban.

Despite the clarity of the findings, some policymakers who originally supported the legislation  have already attempted to discredit, dismiss, or ignore the evidence. This kind of rhetoric endangers the health of Utah’s children and directly contradicts the values of our state. Based on these results, children’s healthcare decisions must be returned to the hands of their families and doctors, not dictated by the whims of politicians.”

But the Republicans hate educated scientist, it gives their MAGA base headaches when they start thinking.