The United States treats trans kids poorly. State legislatures and school boards are instituting bans on appropriate inclusion in school sports, the right to use the correct bathroom, and access to gender-affirming care. We have evidence and research on both the short- and long-term effects of those policies, and history will remember us if we don’t overturn them soon.

Perhaps fifty or even thirty years ago, it would have been reasonable to plead ignorance and to say that we didn’t know how best to help trans kids. While a hundred years ago we had a growing modern understanding of trans people, their needs, and how to ensure they had a fulfilling life. But the Nazis, the burning of the library at the Hirschfeld Institute of Sexology, the Hays Code, and conservative ideals during globalization helped to put a stop to all of that for a few decades.