In the United States Republicans seeking to restrict children’s lives claim trans youth are a ‘new phenomenon’. Historian Jules Gill-Peterson explains how medical archives prove them wrong.
Republican lawmakers pushing to restrict transgender children’s lives have repeatedly argued that trans kids are a “new phenomenon” and that gender-affirming treatments and policies are “experimental”.
But Jules Gill-Peterson, a professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh, has found extensive evidence of trans youth in the US living as themselves and fighting to transition in decades-old archival documents. The records from American hospitals and clinics date back to the early 20th century, with examples across the US well before the existence of contemporary language on trans identity.
The Guardian recently spoke to the Histories of the Transgender Child author about her research and its implications as Republicans push legislation to restrict trans youths’ access to sports teams and outlaw gender-affirming healthcare.
Why was it important to you to research the history of trans kids?
In the past 10 years, we’ve seen this sudden visibility of trans kids. There’s a lot more representation. But the common refrain is, ‘Trans people are so new’ and ‘Trans kids, my gosh! They didn’t even exist until recently.’ And I started to think about what happens when you’re part of a group that gets framed as brand new.
There’s this cloak of caution and fear around trans kids, this idea that ‘We don’t know what it means for a child to transition’. That ‘this is all an experiment’. I had a sense as a historian that these ideas were probably not true and wanted to do historical research that would challenge this, by showing that trans kids have been around for a long time.