Anti-Trans Laws and AFS Students’ Safety

As of December 2024 with 669 bills under consideration in 43 states, “48 anti-trans bills have passed so far,” says translegistlation.com. 

In Pennsylvania, no bills have been passed, but at least five have been introduced or are advancing. Because so many states have passed these laws, and because Pennsylvania is a swing state, concern has arisen over whether Pennsylvania could be one of the next.

 

“More than 90 percent of transgender youth live in states that have proposed or passed laws restricting their rights,” says williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu.

Because of this, people have wondered how these bills would affect the students of AFS. Because of its diverse population and open-mindedness towards gender identity, AFS is known as a safe environment for transgender youth to be themselves. To answer this question, we interviewed Rachel Marcus, the Abington Friends School nurse. 

 

 

How do you identify?

I identify as a gender queer woman.

If anti-trans or anti-LGBTQ laws are passed in Pennsylvania, how will they affect you?

I think that the danger of anti-trans and anti-LGBT laws is pretty widespread. Personally being in a queer marriage with children, our security depends on marriage equality; additionally, I have a non-binary child who deserves all of the rights that any other child has.

How do you think they would affect the AFS community as a whole?

It feels remarkably important that all of the students in our community should be able to have the medical care, the mental health care, and support that they need. Should there be a law that outlawed students being able to get the medical care or psychological care that they need, I believe that they would likely be a crisis, both of us trying to find appropriate resources for those students, as well as a mental health crisis of those who are unable to get the care that they need.

How would it affect your job as a caregiver to the community?

Gender affirming care is life saving care. Studies after studies have shown that children and adolescents’ ability to get medical care that allows them to live as their true selves decreases the rates of suicidality, and it decreases the rate of other kinds of mental health conditions and crisis, and I believe that without it, we are setting up our entire community to see a huge amount of pain.