Trans Kids Update: Dating, PMS, And, Yeah, Bathrooms

Trans Kids Update: Dating, PMS, And, Yeah, Bathrooms

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Last year, North Carolina passed HB2, the so-called “bathroom bill,” banning anyone from using a public restroom that didn’t match up with his or her biological sex.  

After the law passed, we went to North Carolina to visit one of the few gender clinics for kids in the South, at Duke University’s Children’s Hospital. We spent a day-in-the-life there, learning how patients and doctors juggle big physical changes and political changes too.

Since our story last August, things have not calmed down. President Trump has canceled some key protections for trans students. This year, sixteen more states including Texas have introduced their own bathroom bills. And in a controversial decision last week, North Carolina lawmakers revoked HB2 — though trans activists called their replacement bill a bad deal.

So with all this happening, we decided to catch up with the three kids we met last summer — Drew, Martin, and Jaye — and see how their lives and their bodies have changed. We start by going back to our first episode, when each of them was just beginning hormone therapy prescribed by Dr. Deanna Adkins, the pediatric endocrinologist who started Duke’s transgender clinic two years ago.

Then, we reconnect with Drew, Jaye, and Martin one more time. We talk about the joys (and pitfalls) of dating online, how their bodies are changing, and how they’re doing under President Trump.