This is his most recent attempt to weaken national protections for transgender individuals.
By Associated Press’s Zeke Miller
WASHINGTON (AP) – In his most recent attempt to weaken rights for transgender individuals nationwide, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday that will reduce federal funding for gender transitions for anyone under the age of 19.
According to the order, “the United States will strictly enforce all laws that forbid or restrict these harmful and life-altering procedures, and it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”
The order instructs the Department of Justice to strongly pursue litigation and legislation to fight the practice and mandates that federally-run insurance programs, such as Medicaid and TRICARE for military families, exclude coverage for such care.
In certain states, gender-affirming care is covered under Medicaid programs. Targeting hospitals and colleges that get federal funding and offer the care, the new order raises the possibility that the practice may be discontinued.
The executive order’s wording, which includes terms like “maiming,” “sterilising,” and “mutilation,” is inconsistent with the norm for gender-affirming care in the US. Additionally, it calls the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s recommendations “junk science.” Access to care is supported by prominent medical organisations like the American Medical Association.
According to a spokesman for the American Academy of Paediatrics, “Parents and families should be free to make medical decisions informed by their doctors and the available science without the interference of politics.”
A group of experts initially assesses youth who consistently identify as a gender other than the sex they were assigned at birth. Some young people might experiment with social transitions, such as switching out their pronouns or haircut. Later on, some people might additionally have hormones or puberty blockers. For minors, surgery is very uncommon.
In a statement, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said, “This executive order is a blatant attempt to put politicians in between people and their doctors, preventing them from accessing evidence-based health care supported by every major medical association in the country.” “Playing politics with people’s lives and denying transgender youth, their families, and their providers the autonomy to make essential health care decisions is incredibly unfair.”
Trump’s directive, like many of his measures, is likely to be challenged in court.
Trump is making yet another attempt to undo the Biden administration’s protections for transgender individuals and their treatment. Trump ordered the Pentagon to carry out an investigation on Monday that will probably result in their exclusion from military service. On Tuesday, a group of active-duty military personnel filed a lawsuit over that.
Trump signed a new order hours after taking office last week that aims to define sex as exclusively male or female, ignoring the idea that gender can be fluid and transgender, nonbinary, and intersex persons. Transgender people are now forced to apply for travel documents with markings that don’t reflect their identities because the State Department has already stopped issuing passports with the “X” gender designation.
During his campaign last year, Trump promised to address these concerns, and his actions may cause a great deal of division.
According to AP VoteCast, voters were marginally more likely to oppose than support legislation in the November election that would prohibit gender-affirming medical treatments, like hormone therapy and puberty blockers, for transgender adolescents under the age of 18. Approximately 52% of voters were against it, while 47% supported it.
Bans on transgender care were far more likely to be supported by Trump’s supporters; almost 60% of Trump supporters supported such legislation.
Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, stated, “It is very evident that this order, along with the other orders that we have seen over the past week, are meant to single-mindedly drive out transgender people of all ages from all walks of civic life, rather than to protect anyone in this country.”
According to Seldin, the ACLU is examining the order “to determine what requires ongoing agency action and what, if anything, has immediate effect.”
Social conservatives have made transgender individuals a significant target, despite the fact that they have become more visible and accepted in some ways. At least 26 states have passed legislation restricting or outright prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors in recent years. The majority of those states are also facing legal action, including one that is currently ongoing before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Tennessee’s ban.
Republican-controlled states have also taken steps to restrict access to restrooms for transgender individuals, especially in schools, and to prevent transgender women and girls from participating in women’s or girls’ sports.
