The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.
One Saturday morning in September 2022, Terrence Steyer, the dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, placed an urgent call to a student. Just a year prior, the medical student, Thomas Agostini, had won first place at a university-sponsored event for his graduate research on transgender pediatric patients. He also had been featured in a video on MUSC’s website highlighting resources that support the LGBTQ+ community.
Now, Agostini and his once-lauded study had set off a political firestorm. Conservative activists seized on one line in particular in the study’s summary — a parenthetical noting the youngest transgender patient to visit MUSC’s pediatric endocrinology clinic was 4 years old — and inaccurately claimed that children that young were prescribed hormones as part of a gender transition. Elon Musk amplified the false claim, tweeting, “Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?” That led federal and state lawmakers to frantically ask top MUSC leaders whether the public hospital was in fact helping young children medically transition. The hospital was not; its pediatric transgender patients did not receive hormone therapy before puberty, nor does it offer surgical options to minors.
After I had my mastectomy I woke up briefly out of anesthesia, looked down, smiled and went back to sleep. I didn’t gaslight myself into being okay with it. Every time I get to go swimming or running without a shirt, every time I get a pizza from the door in an A-top and cargo shorts, I feel amazing in my body. I used to wear nothing but hoodies and jeans, covering every single inch of my body. I grow out a Duck Dynasty beard if I don’t shave for a couple months, it’s absolutely spectacular.
I don’t feel fooled, I’m not spending ridiculous amounts of money. It’s ~$25 a month for my shots, I paid $5500 for the mastectomy years ago. I see my primary care doc twice a year to get blood work done, the only issue with my T is that I make too many red blood cells and need to donate blood occasionally.
I’m a neckbeard that likes craft beer and D&D - that is my real self. The “real issues” that prevent me from a “happy life” are entirely related to being part of a group that fascists have decided to scapegoat.