President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at ending federal support for gender transitions for individuals under the age of 19. This move is part of a broader effort to roll back protections for transgender people across the United States.
The order states that the US government will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the “transition” of children from one sex to another. It describes these procedures as “destructive and life-altering.” The order directs federal insurance programs, including TRICARE for military families and Medicaid, to exclude coverage for such care. It also calls on the Department of Justice to pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.
Some state Medicaid programs currently cover gender-affirming care, but the new order suggests that this could end. It also targets hospitals and universities that receive federal funding and provide such care.
The language in the executive order, which includes words like “maiming,” “sterilizing,” and “mutilation,” contradicts the typical terminology used for gender-affirming care in the US. It also dismisses guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”
Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support access to gender-affirming care. Young people who identify as a different gender from their assigned sex at birth are usually evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may undergo a social transition, such as changing their hairstyle or using different pronouns. Others may receive puberty blockers or hormones, while surgery is extremely rare for minors.
“It is deeply unfair to play politics with people’s lives and strip transgender young people, their families, and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson.
The order encourages Congress to pass a law allowing those who receive gender-affirming care and later regret it, or their parents, to sue the providers. It also directs the Justice Department to prioritize investigating states that protect access to gender-affirming care and to “facilitate stripping custody from parents” who oppose the treatments for their children. Some Democratic-controlled states have laws that protect doctors providing gender-affirming care to minors.
Lambda Legal, a legal advocacy group, promised swift legal action in response to the order.
Michel Lee Garrett, a trans woman whose teenage child uses they/them pronouns, said such policies aim to erase trans people from public life. Her child has not pursued medical transition, but Garrett vowed to fight to preserve that option.
“I’ll always support my child’s needs, regardless of what policies may be in place,” Garrett said.
For Howl Hall, an 18-year-old college student, taking testosterone improved his mental health. With the new order, Hall fears that discontinuing testosterone could harm his well-being.
“I would be alive, but I wouldn’t be living,” Hall said. “I can guarantee that I would be failing all of my classes if I was even showing up to them.”
This move is the latest by Trump to reverse policies protecting transgender people. On Monday, he ordered a review that could bar transgender individuals from military service. Last week, he signed an order defining sex as only male or female, excluding transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. This has already led the State Department to stop issuing passports with an “X” gender marker.
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