The Baltimore-based trans studies scholar is known for her work on the history of medical transition, specifically the history of how trans kids have attempted to access such forms of health care. Whether or not the justices heed their expertise, the Supreme Court decision will have a major impact on the future of not only youth access to gender-affirming care in the US but trans American life writ large. She prefers instead to speak plainly about what’s actually at stake: hormones and surgery, not something abstract or intangible like affirmation or validation. “We don’t need any more disgusting ‘trans joy,’” Gill-Peterson says. Changing jobs, switching insurance plans, moving between states—something always held up the process, even when she had explicit legal protections against health care discrimination based on where she lived and was working for an employer that “would’ve paid for something like 95 percent of the cost.”