When it comes to trans rights, we all need our eyes on Arkansas

Republicans are desperate to hide their failures to lead during the COVID-19 pandemic (and in general) and have latched themselves onto an explicitly anti-trans (and anti-queer) platform just in time for midterm elections in November. Conservatives have cozied up to a number of anti-trans rallying cries in order to attack both young people and adults from all sides. As Daily Kos continues to cover, bills and laws tend to target trans girls participating in girls’ sports, trans people accessing safe, gender-affirming health care, and trans folks having access to bathrooms.

Thanks in part to far-right conservative conspiracy theorists like the infamous Libs of TikTok, hospitals, and providers who are offering safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming care to trans youth have quite literally come under attack. Hospitals have had to field threats and harassment, and some have lulled services and resources in an effort to protect both staff and patients. We already have research on how deeply necessary—and life-saving—gender-affirming care can be for trans folks, and we’ve already heard from trans people themselves about why it’s so necessary. And yet Republicans won’t stop.

This framing brings us to the current situation unfolding in Arkansas. On Monday, the first trial in the United States over a state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth begins in Arkansas. The law, misleadingly called the SAFE Act, bars physicians from providing gender-affirming care to people under 18, including puberty blockers and hormonal treatments, and also stops them from offering referrals elsewhere. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

RELATED: Far-right Dan Cox insists kindergarteners are being indoctrinated into being trans