In an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on February 18, two doctors and a lawyer denounced the repressive, transphobic laws passed in the US since Donald Trump's return to the White House, explaining that they "underscore a broader effort to roll back protections for transgender and nonbinary people." Yet "research consistently demonstrates the positive effects of these interventions [gender-affirming care]," and such care is far from "experimental" or akin to "mutilation," they wrote.

"This promises more stigmatization, harassment and discrimination against transgender youth," fears American child psychiatrist Jack Turban. In 2022, in an article for Pediatrics, he pointed out that the theory of Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria ("ROGD") had been used by legislators in the US to ban gender-affirming care for trans teens, despite the "unequivocal support" of major medical organizations.

Theorized in part by Dr. Lisa Littman (Plos One, 2018), ROGD hypothesizes a sudden wave of gender transition among teenagers, who are said to experience "social contagion" through the influence of social media. Littman also suggested that this is more likely to affect AFABs (Assigned Female at Birth): The degraded image of women conveyed on social media plunges them into deep confusion, from which they escape by transitioning to the masculine gender.

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