Therapist: 'Gender-affirming care is ethical practice.' Bill would put bigotry over science

Therapist Lily Cunningham (they/them) received their master’s in education from Cleveland State University in 2013. They make their home in Dublin with their spouse and children. 

A harmful piece of legislation is targeting trans youth and their families in a way which allows government overreach into one's ability to choose their own healthcare. 

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Data proves that children and youth who are gender expansive decrease in feelings of gender dysphoria, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors when they are supported by their community and can access lifesaving treatment, such as gender-affirming care.

House Bill 454 should not move forward.

As a community, it is time for Ohioans to learn the facts about how to protect their own children and create the safe communities all children deserve to decrease anxiety, increase feelings of euphoria and joy, and which respects individual and family autonomy. 

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As a mental health professional and lifelong Ohioan, I am very concerned about how House Bill 454 attempts to legitimize the biases of bigotry over science, and how the process itself of having public hearings asking for this to stop is itself damaging to families across the state.

While I can only speak for myself as a parent and therapist, it's an understatement to say that this bill and the processes fighting it itself are creating stress for myself and my practice.

The ethical codes of my profession and my personal life experience will not allow for me to sit silently while the state attempts to weaponize my education and license to meet ends which are evidence-based harm.

I work to provide evidence-based treatment to improve mental health, not destroy it. 

I am asking all other Ohioans who are passionate about liberty to join me in asking for this government overreach in the name of trans and gender-expansive youth to stop.  

The process of having families come to the Statehouse to demand and fight for their ability to choose ethical treatment for their children is unacceptable.

This itself is harmful, and as a witness who has had their opponent testimony written over six months and haven't yet been heard, I can tell you the process itself causes stress.

This bill, if made law, would allow the state to dictate treatment options for my children and limit my ability as a counselor to use ethical treatment.

Providing gender-affirming care is ethical practice and championed by all federal professional mental health organizations. In my profession, this means maintaining confidentiality of the client's identity, including names and pronouns.

I am a therapist.

The nature of my work is to provide confidentiality and safe spaces for clients to share. 

There are already laws, rules, and ethical codes to be sure myself and others are not abusing their role, and I find it sets a dangerous precedent to allow the state government the ability to control one's most intimate healthcare and family decisions. 

Stop House Bill 454.

Therapist Lily Cunningham (they/them) received their master’s in education from Cleveland State University in 2013. They make their home in Dublin with their spouse and children.