Cincinnatti transgendered teen gets court approval to begin medical treatment.

I'm glad to see that the court made the right decision but the state legislature needs to do their job and ban any form of religious therapy for LGBT minors.  The city of Cincinnati does ban reparative therapy for minors.

religious therapy

Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

The city of Cincinnati does ban reparative therapy for minors.

Good. At least that's something.

Religious therapy kills people, even those at the heart of it admits it. Reading the bible doesn't cure anything, except maybe logical thought. 

The majority of people that I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9% of them have not experienced a change in their orientation," and apologized for the previous Exodus slogan "Change Is Possible"

Both the professional psychologists and psychiatrists associations state that there is absolutely no evidence to support any positive effects of religious conversion therapy.  

What Do Mainstream Mental Health Professionals Say About Conversion Therapy?

All of the nation’s leading professional medical and mental health associations have rejected conversion therapy as unnecessary, ineffective, and dangerous. These groups have cautioned that the practices do not work and have warned patients that they may be harmful. For example, the American Psychological Association “advises parents, guardians, young people, and their families to avoid sexual orientation change efforts that portray homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder and to seek psychotherapy, social support, and educational services that provide accurate information on sexual orientation and sexuality, increase family and school support, and reduce rejection of sexual minority youth.”

The American Psychiatric Association “opposes any psychiatric treatment such as reparative or conversion therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that a patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated: “Therapy directed at specifically changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.”

The Pan American Health Organization, a regional office of the World Health Organization, has stated that these practices “lack medical justification and represent a serious threat to the health and well-being of affected people.”

Religious therapy kills people, even those at the heart of it admits it.

And they would say it's "god's will."

Reading the bible doesn't cure anything, except maybe logical thought.

Indeed.

Both the professional psychologists and psychiatrists associations state that there is absolutely no evidence to support any positive effects of religious conversion therapy.

Which is why such "therapies" are and should be banned.

And they would say it's "god's will."

Conservative religious people never take responsibility for their actions. Their religious policies and prayer don't work but somehow it's always someone else's fault. 

Why take responsibility when it's "god's will?" Quite convenient. 

wonder who is paying for this?

He is a minor so the state of Ohio is likely paying for it via Medicaid.

I don't know about Medicaid per se since that would depend on the financial situation of the parents or grandparents, but the HRT being requested is dirt cheap.    The shame of it is that the kid hasn't been receiving appropriate treatment during his latter puberty and that can be psychologically traumatic, although possibly less of a medical problem for a trans male since the puberty changes aren't as dramatic or as permanent as for a trans female.

If you read the full ruling the judge makes some rather disturbing comments about the court being coerced by suicide threats and about whether the court needs to take jurisdiction every time a teen is unable to get a desired rhinoplasty or other cosmetic surgery.    So while the ruling is somewhat OK, it's clear the judge really doesn't get it.

The abuse suffered because of his religious parents will probably be a bigger problem that the fact that he is transgendered. Trans people need to be screened for PTSD because of the emotional abuse that they commonly suffer. 

The version of the story that as in the Akron paper said that his parents told him to kill himself because they would rather have a dead child than to have a trans' son because of their conservative beliefs. I hope that he has supportive friends because he is going to need that network. Most millennials and such do not see the problem of being trans' that their parents have. It is just not an issue to them. 

I don't know about Medicaid per se since that would depend on the financial situation of the parents or grandparents, but the HRT being requested is dirt cheap. 

He is living with his grandparents who likely are on Medicare, and I doubt that the courts are going to force his parents to pay for it, so he is considered to be a ward of the state. Medicaid will likely pay for the medications and therapy. Testosterone therapy is cheap. I hope that he is able to find a good gender therapist because that is the most pressing concern at this stage of his transition. Unless he chooses to attend a religious college, which isn't likely, he won't have a problem as a freshman. 

How screwed up must this family be when the grandparents are more accepting of gender identity than the parents?

He is living with his grandparents who likely are on Medicare, and I doubt that the courts are going to force his parents to pay for it, so he is considered to be a ward of the state.

That part is a bit confusing.   Pg 2 of the ruling states that the parents have been continuing to pay for the counseling sessions but were unwilling to pay for the hormone treatment (which is much cheaper).    And I'm not sure who pays for the child's healthcare when they're in the custody of the county's family service dept.

And I'm not sure who pays for the child's healthcare when they're in the custody of the county's family service dept.

He would qualify for Medicaid as a ward of the state.   He is covered by either CHIP or Medicaid.

The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) serves uninsured children up to age 19 in families with incomes too high to qualify them for Medicaid. States have broad discretion in setting their income eligibility standards, and eligibility varies across states.

That's why I found confusing the court's statement that the parents were paying for the child's counseling despite him being a ward of the county.

That's why I found confusing the court's statement that the parents were paying for the child's counseling despite him being a ward of the county.

I can't imagine that his parents didn't cite their religious beliefs as a reason for their refusal to pay for medical/psychological therapy.

Was this teen covered under a parents healthcare plan provided by their employer? If that is the case then he might have better treatment options than what is available under Medicaid/CHIP.

At the very least they should have made an insurance claim to cover the exorcism of the transgender demon.

25 years ago many insurance companies common treatment of the transgendered was to try to reinforce the birth gender with psychotherapy.  With the time that nonsense was proven not to work so they were forced to pay for hormonal therapy and transition.

Good to see the judge do the right thing.   While it's not surprising that Ohio's laws are still pretty regressive on this issue, the sad part is that even Pakistan is more progressive in their laws than Ohio or any red state.

pinknews.co.uk

Transgendered people are protected in Iran because they view it as a medical disorder with subsidized medical treatment, as long as the person is heterosexual in their identified gender role.

qz

Yeah, Iran is a weird and rather coercive case where even some gay cisgender folks have had surgery in order to avoid being executed.

Pakistan I found interesting because the new law was approved by an Islamic court before it was passed by the parliament.   I suspect that's because south Asia has a long tradition of cultural and even legal recognition of a third gender, but at the same time the cultural anti-trans bias is so strong that the new law might not have much effect.

I suspect that's because south Asia has a long tradition of cultural and even legal recognition of a third gender, but at the same time the cultural anti-trans bias is so strong that the new law might not have much effect.

Vigilante justice driven by religious belief is more likely.

insisted he receive Christian therapy 

Thank goodness his parents didn't get their way.  That therapy would have screwed him up past the point of no return.

Many people who undergo reparative therapy end up dead of suicide because of what it does to the person.

For instance, Samuel Brinton, a nuclear scientist who works on energy policy in Washington, D.C., reported seeing ex-gay therapists for years during his teen years, when his religious parents found out about his orientation.

One of those therapists told Brinton he was the last gay man on Earth and that, because "all gay men had AIDS," the 13-year-old Brinton did as well, he said in an interview with LGBTQ Nation .

The therapist also told him his chances of getting into heaven were "shrinking every day." Doctors also put copper coils around his wrists and blasted them with heat whenever he was shown pictures of men holding hands, he reported. During the course of the treatment, Brinton attempted suicide several times, according to the news report.