Natalie Kitroeff

It felt like a relief to finally be doing something they thought would help her.

But on the way to the doctor, it dawned on Ali's mom that what had felt like a deeply personal issue, a private family matter, that was about to run headlong into politics.

Like I had kind of had known that there had been some laws that they had been trying to pass in Tennessee.

But honestly, like it was hard to keep track.

And so I do remember there being some anti-trans laws on the books or at least being up for debate.

And so on the way to the doctor's office, I was like, you know what?

I don't I now I think about it.

I do remember them debating this, too.

And so I asked her to Google it, like Google, can we get health care?

Wow, you are literally Googling whether you can get this care.

Yeah, on the way to the doctors.

Wow.

We'll be right back.

Allie and her mom met with the therapist and the doctor, who both agreed that exploring gender-affirming care was a good idea.

But they also confirmed the family's fears.

Tennessee had banned those treatments for minors in 2023.

That ban had grown out of a number of concerns, some of them moral, some of them religious.

But there was also a real debate within the medical community over the right treatment for these kids, over whether to intervene as early as possible or whether to wait until they reached adulthood.

Allie's doctor and therapist said if the family wanted to seek that treatment, they were going to have to look outside of Tennessee.

So I went home and told my husband, and we just started... I mean, it was right up on Thanksgiving, so I remember over the Thanksgiving break, like right before it, we were Googling, like, what could you do?