The Trump administration and House Republicans this week advanced measures to end gender-affirming care for transgender children and some young people, sparking outrage and opposition from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, families with transgender children, health care providers and some California liberal leaders.
Recent efforts to ban such care nationwide, defund hospitals that provide it, and punish doctors and parents who provide or support it have followed earlier. President Trump's executive orders And work of the Ministry of Justice curb such concern.
Many hospitals, including in California, have already curtailed such care or have closed their gender-affirming care programs as a result.
Abigail Jones, a 17-year-old transgender activist from Riverside, called the actions “ridiculous” and dangerous because such care “saves lives.”
She also called them a purely political act by Republicans intent on turning transgender people into “monsters” they can rally their base against, and an act that “backfires on them because they don't focus on what people want,” such as: availability and reducing healthcare costs.
On Wednesday, the House passed a sweeping ban on gender-affirming care for youth pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) largely along party lines.
The bill, facing a tougher road in the US Senate, would ban already rare gender confirmation surgeries, as well as more common treatments such as hormone therapy and puberty blockers, for those under 18. It also calls for the criminal prosecution of doctors and other health care professionals who provide such care, as well as the punishment of parents who facilitate or consent to its provision to their children.
“Children aren’t old enough to vote, drive a car, or get tattoos, and they’re certainly not old enough to be chemically castrated or permanently mutilated!!!” Green posted on X.
“The situation is changing, and I am so grateful that Congress is taking measurable steps to end this practice that ruined my childhood,” wrote Chloe Cole, a prominent “detransition advocate” who opposes the gender-affirming child care she received and now regrets.
Gay rights groups condemned the measure as a dangerous threat to health care workers and parents, and as a mischaracterization of legitimate health care supported by major U.S. medical associations. They also called it a threat to LGBTQ+ rights more broadly.
“If this bill becomes law, doctors could face jail time simply for doing their jobs and providing the care they were trained to provide. Parents could face criminal charges and even jail time for supporting their children and ensuring they get prescribed medications,” said Kelly Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation's leading LGBTQ+ rights groups.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing new rules that would ban such assistance to health care workers in their programs, which include nearly all U.S. hospitals. The health department said the move “is designed to ensure that the U.S. government does not do business with organizations that intentionally or unintentionally cause irreparable harm to children.”
The department said officials would propose additional rules prohibiting the use of Medicaid or federal Children's Health Insurance Program funds for gender-affirming care for children or young adults under age 19, and that its Office of Civil Rights would propose a rule that would exclude gender dysphoria from covered disabilities.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to makers of some medical devices, including chest braces, saying it is illegal to market their products to transgender youth.
“Under my leadership and in response to President Trump’s call to action, the federal government will do everything in its power to stop the unsafe, irreversible practices that put our children at risk,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “Our children deserve better—and we are delivering on that promise.”
The proposed rule changes are subject to public comment, and the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTQ+ organizations, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, have called on supporters to voice their opposition.
Joe Hollendoner, the center's executive director, said the proposed changes would “cruelly target transgender youth” and would “destabilize safety-net hospitals” and other critical care facilities.
“Hospitals should never be forced to choose between providing life-saving care to young transgender people and providing critical services like cancer treatment to other patients,” Hollendoner said. “Yet it is precisely this division and harm that these rules are designed to create.”
Hollendoner noted that California hospitals such as Children's Hospital Los Angeles has already cut its gender-affirming services in the face of previous threats from the Trump administration, and thousands of transgender youth have already lost access to health care.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement contrasting the Trump administration's actions with California's new partnership with Project Trevor to improve preparations for the state's 988 crisis and suicide hotline for vulnerable youth, including LGBTQ+ children who are disproportionately at risk for suicide and mental health issues.
“As the Trump administration rolls back the well-being of LGBT youth, California is investing more resources in giving vulnerable children the mental health support they deserve,” Newsom said.
California Atty. General Rob Bonta's Office I'm already suing the Trump administration for efforts to reduce gender-affirming care and target providers of such care in California, where it is protected and supported by state law. In his office also resisted Trump administration efforts repeal other rights of transgender people, including youth sports.
On Thursday, Bonta said the proposed rules are “the latest attempt by the Trump administration to deprive Americans of the care they need to live like themselves.” He also said they are “illegal” and that his office will fight them.
“If the Trump Administration puts forward final rules like these proposals, we are prepared to use every tool in our toolbox to prevent them from ever taking effect,” Bonta said, adding that “gender-affirming health care remains protected under California law.”
Arne Johnson, a Bay Area father of a transgender child who helps run a group of similar families called Rainbow Families Action, said there has been “a lot of hate thrown at them in recent days” but they are focused on fighting back – and asking hospital networks “not to panic and not cut off care” based on proposed rules that have not yet been finalized.
Johnson said Republicans and Trump administration officials are “strangely obsessed” with the bodies of transgender children, “eroding trust between us and our doctors” and dangerously embedding politics between families and health care providers.
He said parents of transgender children are “used to being hurt, upset, sad and worried about their children, and doing everything in their power to make sure nothing bad happens to them” and have no plans to stop fighting now.
But resistance to such medical interventions is not just about gender-affirming care. Next, he said, could be a blockage of vaccines for children, which should be upsetting and make a statement to all parents.
“If our children don't get taken care of, next time they will come for your children,” Johnson said. “Pretty soon we will all be walking into hospital rooms wondering whether we can trust that doctor across the street to give our child the best care, or whether his hands will be tied.”
