1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I'm writing to talk about the issue of transgender rights in the United States. I believe that attacking transgender people's right to self expression and freedom to live as the gender they desire is an attack on not just transgender Americans constitutional rights, but everyone's constitutional rights. Majority of the studies show that accepting transgender people as the gender they present as, not the one they were born as, massively improve their quality of life. Gender affirming care in terms of surgeries has around a 1% regret rate, which in any other field of medicine would be a miracle, as I believe the average is around 14%? Point is way more people regret most surgeries that are cosmetic in nature, and yet this type is demonized purely because of who's getting it. Not to mention, this has led into people getting attacked just because people thought they were transgender, just because of how they looked. Attacking transgender people and taking away their ability to live comfortably as they are is unconstitutional and goes against the freedom of self expression which all Americans are entitled to. Not to mention, there's this demonization of trans people surrounding children which makes zero sense when you take a look at what's actually happening. When it comes to transgender kids, the absolute most that happens for kids before puberty is puberty blockers, which are prescribed to children without any real wide scale complaints for other medical issues, but are only demonized for the purposes of gender transition. Most cases for children, gender transition just means socially transitioning, going by a different name and changing how you're referred to by people around you. That's all it is. That's not immoral by any means, no different than a nickname. All in all, I'm just a concerned young American citizen who's worried for the country that me and my siblings will grow up to live in. I, and many other people, have already been and will continue to be negatively impacted by these anti-constitutional laws everyday, and I just am doing my best to try to make my country a world that can be enjoyed by all.