(WASHINGTON) — Transgender young adults and families with transgender youth filed a legal challenge Tuesday against an executive order from the Trump administration that restricts gender-affirming care for transgender people under 19.
“When the Tennessee Legislature passed a law that banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, I knew we had to leave the state so that my daughter could continue receiving the care she needs,” said Kristen Chapman, the mother of 17-year-old plaintiff Willow, in a statement.
The Virginia resident continued: “We moved to Virginia in the summer of 2023, but struggled to find a provider that would accept our Medicaid insurance. As paying for her care out-of-pocket became prohibitively expensive, I tried for months to get an appointment at VCU, and I finally got an appointment for January 29, 2025. The day before our appointment, President Trump signed the executive order at issue in this case. The next day, just a few hours before our appointment, VCU told us they would not be able to provide Willow with care. I thought Virginia would be a safe place for me and my daughter. Instead, I am heartbroken, tired, and scared.”
Trump’s order moves to withhold federal funding to medical institutions that provide such care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries — calling on the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” The executive order does not appear to restrict these procedures for non-transgender people under 19.
Trump’s executive order states that “it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The lawsuit was filed by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, PFLAG national, the ACLU of Maryland, and the law firms Hogan Lovells and Jenner & Block on behalf of two transgender young adults and five transgender adolescents.
Major national medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and more than 20 others argue that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, beneficial, and medically necessary.
The complaint notes that “for many transgender adolescents, the onset of puberty leading to physical changes in their bodies that are incongruent with their gender identities can cause extreme distress.”
It continued, “Puberty-delaying medication allows transgender adolescents to pause these changes, thereby minimizing and potentially preventing the heightened gender dysphoria caused by the development of secondary sex characteristics incongruent with their gender identity.”
The executive order is the latest action from Trump that impacts the transgender community — which is estimated to make up less than 1% of the population over the age of 13. Trump also recently signed executive orders restricting transgender participation in the military, ending federal legal recognition of transgender people, and restricting gender marker changes on federal documents.
The Supreme Court is currently considering the landmark U.S. v. Skrmetti case, which challenges Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormone therapy on the grounds that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating based on sex.
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