The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten covers the challenges faced by transgender youth in Norway regarding access to gender-affirming medical treatment in a new article.
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Photo of Stina's shoes from Aftenposten. Photo: Charlotte Førde Skomsøy |
It focuses on the case of "Stina," a 13-year-old who was denied puberty blockers by Rikshospitalet, Norway’s national medical institution for gender treatment. Instead, she sought treatment at the Health Station for Gender and Sexuality (Helsestasjon for kjønn og seksualitet, HKS) in Oslo, which granted her access to the medication.
Cis-normative gatekeepers
The article confirms what many trans people have argued for a long time: Public institutions for transgender health often become gatekeepers serving a cis-normative society.
Although the doctors see themselves as progressive and supportive, their internalized transphobia make them set up strict rules for who qualifies as a "real trans person".
Norwegian trans people will tell you that as far as Rikshospitalet is concerned, it helps to live up to the gender stereotypes of accepted femininity and masculinity if you want hormones and surgery.
This is ethically problematic, as these doctors - all of them cis people - have put themselves up as both judges and prisoners, claiming the power to decide whether a trans person should be living their lives as themselves or not.