Trump signs order to defund gender transitions for LGBTQ youth

The funding and promotion of gender transitions for LGBTQ youth is being stopped by President Donald Trump’s executive order.

In his order signed on Tuesday, Trump said the federal government would no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender transitions – also referred to as gender-affirming care – for those aged under 19.

The order read, “Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to realize the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or feed their children through breastfeeding.”

“Moreover, these vulnerable youths ‘ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization”.

Trump’s order includes cross-sex hormone therapy, surgery, and other treatments for young people who have gender dysphoria, which describes the distress experienced by those whose biological sex does not match their gender identity.

In the US, there have been many controversies and political polarizations regarding the medical care of transgender youth, with some arguing that minors aren’t mature enough to decide whether to undergo potentially life-changing procedures.

In recent years, there have been more than a few more cases of gender dysphoria among young people in the US, despite the fact that only a small percentage of those have received medical care, according to various analyses.

282 minors who had been previously diagnosed with gender dysphoria underwent mastectomies in 2021 according to an analysis conducted by the Reuters news agency and Komodo Health.

About 4, 230 minors received cross-sex hormones and just under 1, 400 received puberty blockers that year, according to the analysis.

Additionally, Trump’s order directed organizations to stop relying on WPATH, which the organization claimed was selling “junk science.”

A comment request was not immediately addressed by WPATH.

GLADD, one of the biggest LGBTQ rights organisations in the US, blasted Trump’s order, describing its rhetoric as “appallingly inaccurate, incoherent, and extreme”.

Every major medical association supports transgender health care. The Trump administration’s unhinged obsession with attacking transgender people and their health care does not reflect medical fact and does not represent the reality of trans people, youth, and their freedom to be themselves, and make their own health care decisions, without being discriminated against and lied about”, GLADD said in a statement.

“The Trump administration’s obsession comes at a high cost for every American who wants the government to address actual issues like gun violence, abortion access, and rising costs”.

Major US medical organisations, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, have expressed support for gender-affirming care, though several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, and France, have taken steps to roll back access to treatments such as puberty blockers.

The Cass Review, a landmark study funded by the UK’s National Health Service, concluded last year that there is “remarkably weak” evidence supporting the use of medical treatments for gender dysphoria in young people, and that such treatments should only be done with “extreme caution.”