Staley Munroe loves her life now, but living her true authentic self hasn't been easy because of the negative ways others saw her. 

“Deviant, or unable to use the restroom,” Munroe described. “Literally trying to micromanage the most basic human elements of my life. Or to send the message that you aren't welcome here, or you should not exist publicly.”

Munroe is telling her story to Spectrum News in response to new legislation that could remove the rights of transgender youth and their families to seek affirming medical care.

“Culturally competent and culturally humble caretakers, medical caretakers were life-changing for me and literally saved my life,” says Munroe.

Munroe is a transgender woman – she says she spent most of her life being mistreated by medical professionals and religious leaders who didn't accept her when she was young.  

“Ever since I was a child, I was incredibly aware of the fact that I was a woman,” says Munroe, who lives in Central Ohio. “And the daily conflict and shame that I lived in were really crippling.”

Munroe says lack of acceptance and affirmation caused years of strife that led to homelessness, depression, and negative self-perceptions that prevented her from transitioning until later in life.

“You're literally gaslit to believe that you are crazy, or that your most basic instincts are incorrect,” says Munroe. “I did not have supportive family, I did not have supportive friends. And so when you are moving through the most formative years of life, without support, without love or with love that is so conditional based on a cookie-cutter mode, it's devastating.”

That's why she doesn't understand why Republican state representatives Ron Hood (R-Ashville) and Bill Dean (R-Xenia) introduced a bill prohibiting a wide range of treatments - many of which aren’t actually approved treatments for youth.

“It makes me feel angry,” says Munroe. “It is wrong. It is based in fallacies and lies that are not upheld by the medical community at all.”

Representative Hood says the bill was motivated by parents who spoke with him about their experiences, and calls the treatments “sterilization.” 

“I see it as abuse of the children, and the problem I see is that this is irreversible, and this is not a decision that should be made as a child,” said Hood during an on-camera interview outside of the House Chamber. 

The bill allows for some counseling by mental health professionals and other licensed medical professionals around gender and sexuality but prohibits any type of surgeries, as well as any medication to block or delay puberty or hormone treatment if the hormone does not coincide with the young person's assigned sex at birth. 

Hood says he didn't speak to any LGBTQ+ advocates, transgender care health professionals, or transgender people while drafting this bill, which is very similar to legislation introduced in several other states like South Dakota, Florida, South Carolina, and Colorado according to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. 

The bill lists 12 specific surgeries to be banned for Ohioans under age 18, including vasectomy, hysterectomy, castration, and mastectomy, which according to experts in transgender care, are not available to the majority of youth before adulthood.

The bill also lists several other treatments that are not supported by any standard of care for transgender youth, such as subjecting a minor’s genitals to electrical currents or wrapping the minor’s hands in heat coils. 

We asked Hood if he was familiar with standards of care for transgender youth, or if he had spoken with anyone who is involved in the treatment of transgender youth, and he doubled down on his response. 

“My concern is this is, we are talking about the permanent, irreversible sterilization of children, these are decisions that they don't get to make when they are of age, these are decisions that are made for them,” says Hood. 

Equality Ohio's Development Director and Attorney Siobhan Boyd-Nelson disagreed with the bill's explanations of transgender youth care, noting that the majority of the procedures listed in the bill aren't included in standards of practice for youth.

“They are completely outside of what is actually happening, and they are no in line with reality,” says Boyd-Nelson.

She also says the plain reading of the legislation seems to  oppose what is normally thought of as affirming care which typically involves individual and family counseling, and limited medical intervention.

“They are given space to explore their gender identity and sexual orientation,” says Boyd-Nelson. “They are affirmed in that exploration, and they are simply being helped along by a mental health professional.”

Munroe says legislation like this is dangerous for transgender and gender diverse  young people.

“It's dehumanizing, it's completely dehumanizing to try and find some legislative scapegoat that falls on the back of trans and non-binary youth, and literally puts their mental and physical well-being at risk,” says Munroe. 

Risks that experienced medical professionals in trans care are working to reduce. Dr. Scott Leibowitz is the Medical Director of Behavioral Health for the Nationwide Children's Hospital Thrive program. He’s an expert in transgender youth care and says the guiding policies from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization for transgender and gender diverse youth care are built on evidence-based scientific research.

“The power of going to a doctors office, and hearing from a doctor you're allowed to be you, whoever you are often feels like in that very first session, we have just lifted a massive weight off of the chest of these youth,” says Leibowitz who is currently serving around 600 families through the program. 

Munroe says once she found healthcare providers that affirmed her identity, everything changed.

“That process, literally being seen and heard and recognized and cared for, sent me a new message of hope, and sent me a message that I was none of those terrible things that the world was trying to say that I was,” Munroe said. 

And she said that as she began to live her truth, it set her on a new course to live her best life, find love, and advocate for others.

“It was literally, entirely life-changing,” said Munroe. “It took me from depression to joy; it took me from homelessness to bountiful employment and owning my own home. It took me from toxic relationships with the wrong kinds of people to understanding my worth and my value.”