Intersex Exceptions in U.S. Laws Restricting Medical Care for Transgender Minors

Contemporary U.S. legislation restricts hormonal and surgical interventions for transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) persons, primarily legal minors, who may need them and who voluntarily request them. We conducted a comprehensive review of all U.S. legislation from 2021 to 2024 that restricts voluntarily sought TGD-related healthcare and found explicit allowances for physically comparable, but non-voluntary interventions to “normalize” the benign bodily attributes of children with intersex conditions, or congenital variations in sex characteristics. Our findings could suggest a lack of equal regard for all individuals’ moral and legal rights to self-determination and bodily autonomy.