An Open Letter to Governor Spencer Cox Representative Rex Shipp and the Members of the Utah State Legislature Regarding the Ban on Gender-Affirming Care

Paula Sadler
6 days ago
7 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

An Open Letter to Governor Spencer Cox Representative Rex Shipp and the Members of the Utah State Legislature

Regarding the Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Youth and the Proposed Restrictions on Gender-Affirming Care for Adults

1/28/2026

Governor Cox, Representative Shipp, and Members of the Utah State Legislature,

I am writing today in response to the ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth and the proposal to end or restrict that care for adults.

I write as a 50-year-old transgender woman who grew up in an Evangelical, born-again Christian home in the 1970s and early 1980s. I know firsthand the devastation of being denied proper care, understanding, and acceptance at a young age and throughout my teenage and early adult years.

Like many transgender women and transgender men, I had a deep self-awareness about who I was at a very early age. I personally knew I was different at five years old, from my earliest memories. What I did not have was an accepting home life, access to therapy, or appropriate care. This caused severe distress from the ages of 12 through 19, which are critical developmental years for any young person.

Even though I was bright, outgoing, energetic, and following my passions in music and the arts—and even though I had friends and was loved by my family—my mother was not accepting of who and what I was. That lack of acceptance caused severe stress and lasting harm.

Later in life, when I was finally able to get therapy, I was able to talk about the childhood abuse I experienced—the kind of abuse that is verbal, emotional, and spiritual. When a parent, guardian, or loved one refuses to honor, respect, and accept their child, and instead tries to force them to be something they are not, it is devastating.

Many young people attempt suicide under these conditions. I had thoughts of suicide at the tender age of 12 years old. That would not have happened if laws were in place to protect transgender children at the time, and if there had been public understanding and access to affirming therapy—which may have included hormone therapy at the onset of puberty.

Instead, I developed in ways that were counterproductive to my identity and who I am. Those changes later had to be reversed with hormone treatment, which I began at age 19. I was fortunate to start relatively young, but it still required years of expensive electrolysis and other procedures that could have been avoided or minimized.

By not receiving proper therapy and care at a young age, my life was derailed in significant ways. I had to focus on recovering from trauma rather than living my life and being the productive citizen I could have been. I could have continued my education, earned a degree, and followed a career path, instead of spending years overcoming the struggles of youth and untreated trauma.

This is exactly what is happening to transgender young people today.

The only reason someone would choose to limit healthcare for children is because they do not believe transgender people are real or that we exist. They believe we are sinful, immoral, an abomination, or suffering from mental illness—which is simply not true. Millions of lived experiences prove otherwise. I am a living testament.

I eventually overcame the trauma, but not without years of therapy. Through that healing, I discovered that I was a worthwhile human being—that I was loving and lovable, that I was normal, that my life had value, and that I was perfectly okay just as I am. I learned that being transgender does not make God love me any less.

I put myself through college and beauty school. I opened my own beauty salon and spa. I became a published author. I eventually returned to my first love, which was music, and I am now working on an album centered on recovery.

I know this may not mean much to you, but I wanted to illustrate a life.

Unfortunately, due to all of the stress I experienced, I also began drinking at a young age—16 years old. By age 26, after many years of problem drinking, I found myself getting sober. I was able to heal that part of my life and understand the reasons behind it. I have now been sober for 23 years.

Being transgender did not make me an alcoholic, but the lack of support and acceptance certainly did not help my plight. It added fuel to the fire of why I drank the way that I did and behaved the way that I did.

Life is not easy for transgender children or LGBTQ+ children. They suffer extreme torment from others in school—bullying, belittling, and dehumanization, both physical and verbal. And when they receive that same treatment at home, the damage is multiplied.

That is the only real sin there is: unacceptance

By banning gender affirming care, will not save your children or anyone else. Just like me and millions more like me, we will persist. If we make it through the abuse, the bullying, we will emerge into adulthood, and fight against the systems and culture of oppression, simply by acknowledging ourselves and existing.

.The real immorality is hatred, bigotry, and prejudice—especially while holding a Bible in one hand and preaching the Gospel, and in the other hand spewing condemnation, calling people sinners and abominations. That is the true sin.

Last year, I opened a new church and became ordained through Universal Rainbow Faith. We uphold that gender identity and gender expression are sacred and holy rights within our church. Your bans and proposed bills are not only imposing on basic human dignity and freedom—they are an affront to God and a violation of religious freedom and expression.

God made transgender people and LGBTQ+ people. We are loved. We are sacred. We are holy—whatever gender identity we are, whoever we are, and whoever we love.

The ban and your proposed bills are not helping Utah, the country, or the world. They are not saving the morality of the nation. They are not bringing people closer to God. They are causing great harm, great distress, and deep interruption in the lives of one of the smallest minorities in this country. Remember these are children, placed in our care, a precious gift we are to love fully and accept unconditionally.

God is watching.

Our lives are measured by our actions, our words, our deeds, and our thoughts. Our purpose here is to learn the virtue of unconditional love and to demonstrate it through action—through legislation, governance, civic life, and personal conduct.

You will not erase transgender people. We have existed for millennia, since the beginning of humankind, because God made us this way. We have been murdered, maimed, blamed, raped, incarcerated, forced into medical and religious de-conversion, subjected to horrific conversion therapies, burned, hanged, and killed across the world.

And yet, here we are. We persist.

Transgender people are among God’s most beautiful creations. The war on transgender people is a war on God’s children. What is happening now—especially to transgender children—is a form of genocide.

These words may fall on deaf ears, but my hope is that your hearts will open.

I pray that you seek understanding. I pray that God’s will be done in your lives and in the lives of the transgender community. I pray that angels watch over my transgender brothers and sisters and the children who are in harm’s way—from forced medical de-conversion, from abuse of all kinds, and from those who seek to force them to be something they are not.

I pray that they are protected from being told that God does not love them, that they are sinners, immoral, or destined for hell. I pray that children suffering religious persecution are removed from harmful environments and placed with loving families who will nurture them—so they can spend their years developing their gifts, talents, and character instead of trying to survive trauma and PTSD.

And I pray that those who cause this harm are held accountable—not only in this life, but in the hereafter—and are shown the suffering they have inflicted on millions of God’s special children.

I call on you to take a stand, and help the healing begin of our country and the world, and stop the violence against Transgender people and lgbtqia+ people, stop the war on innocent lives and freedom. One life lost is too many. You are charged with the sacred responsibility to save and preserve life, not end it or be the cause of suffering and murder and suicide of even one life.

I am deeply concerned by the combined intent and impact of bills such as H.B. 174, H.B. 193, and H.B. 258 when viewed together. H.B. 174 works to permanently restrict or ban medically recommended gender-affirming care for transgender youth, while H.B. 193 seeks to defund that same care for adults by removing public insurance coverage—effectively placing it out of reach for many. At the same time, H.B. 258 is introduced to mandate insurance coverage for so-called “detransition” care, despite the fact that detransition-related treatment, when medically necessary, is already covered under existing insurance standards just as any other medical revision or change in treatment would be. There is no documented gap in care that requires special legislation. When these bills are taken together, the contradiction is unmistakable: lawmakers claim concern for patient safety while systematically stripping away access to the very healthcare that supports transgender people’s well-being, stability, and survival. You cannot claim to care about outcomes while banning or defunding evidence-based care and simultaneously elevating a narrow, politicized narrative meant to discourage and stigmatize transgender medicine altogether.

You don’t have to fully understand transgender people, trying to do that would be life trying to understand what is was like to walk on the moon. But to have empathy and understanding. To make decisions based on compassion. No one will ever fully know what it is like to be Transgender people, but transgender people. Discovering being transgender is like discovering faith and finding God

Respectfully,

Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Founding Minister

Universal Rainbow Faith Church

Reference:

https://www.them.us/story/utah-republicans-trans-youth-medical-care-ignoring-study

Delivery Notice

This letter has been delivered electronically and/or by mail to the following offices and entities for official review and public record:

Office of the Governor of Utah
Representative Rex Shipp, Utah House of Representatives
Members of the Utah State Legislature (House and Senate)
Utah Legislative Public Comment Portal

Copies may also be provided to media outlets and civil and human rights organizations for public awareness and accountability.

📬 Primary Recipients

Governor Spencer Cox

Office of the Governor of Utah📧 governor@utah.gov📞 (801) 538-1000📮 Office of the Governor350 North State Street, Suite 200Salt Lake City, UT 84114

Representative Rex Shipp

📧 rshipp@le.utah.gov📞 (801) 541-8814📮 Utah House of Representatives PO Box 145030Salt Lake City, UT 84114

🏛️ Utah Legislature

Utah House of Representatives

📧 house@le.utah.gov📞 (801) 538-1029📮 Utah House of Representatives PO Box 145030Salt Lake City, UT 84114

Utah Senate

📧 senate@le.utah.gov📞 (801) 538-1035📮 Utah State Senate PO Box 145115Salt Lake City, UT 84114

Utah Legislative Public Comment Portal

🔗 https://le.utah.gov/av/floorComment.jsp