Elliot Page credits gender-affirming care for helping him experience joy

Elliot Page is making one thing very clear: the joy he’s experienced since receiving gender-affirming care.

The Umbrella Academy star celebrated the beginning of swimsuit season with an Instagram post on Wednesday detailing the difference gender-affirming healthcare has made in his ability to enjoy simple things that many cis people take for granted.

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The actor revealed the cover of “Pageboy” on Instagram along with a heartfelt message about the importance of trans stories.

“Dysphoria used to be especially rife in the summer,” Page wrote in the caption to the post featuring a shirtless selfie. “No layers, just a T-shirt – or layers and oh so sweaty – constantly looking down, readjusting my oversized T. It feels so f’ing good soaking in the sun now, I never thought I could experience this, the joy I feel in my body.”

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Since coming out as transgender in 2020, Page has spoken openly about feeling more confident and at home in his body. “It’s the little [things]…You know, getting out of the shower and the towel’s around your waist and you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and you’re just like, ‘There I am,’” he told Oprah Winfrey in a 2021 interview. “I’m not having the moment where I’m panicked… It’s being able to touch my chest and feel comfortable in my body for probably the first time.”

In a May 2021 Instagram post, he shared his first shirtless photo since getting top surgery, showing off his first pair of swim trunks as well as his washboard abs. Another shirtless selfie posted in November 2021 had fans drooling, as did his July 2022 reveal of his stunning new passport photo.

In his latest post, however, Page explicitly credits gender-affirming healthcare for the joy he now feels in his body.

“I am so grateful for what gender affirming care has allowed me and I look forward to sharing more of my journey soon,” he wrote on Wednesday.

Page’s post, of course, comes as Republican lawmakers across the country continue to attack transgender rights, particularly access to gender-affirming care, despite the fact that every major medical organization in the United States recognizes that gender-affirming healthcare is evidence-based, safe, and effective and can be medically necessary to treat gender dysphoria.

In the first few months of 2023 alone, gender-affirming care bans became law in Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, and Utah. In March, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) released a report that found that 23 percent of trans youth in the U.S. have lost access to gender-affirming care. Since then, Republican governors in West Virginia, Indiana, and Oklahoma have also signed bills banning gender-affirming care for young people.