Trump declares ‘only two genders’ to be official US policy
Trump declares that official U.S. policy will recognize only two genders.
Hospitals across the country are suspending or reevaluating their gender-affirming care programs for patients under 19, creating fear and confusion among transgender youth and their families.
Those who have put out public statements cited President Donald Trump’s executive order that directed federal agencies to take action against hospitals that continue to provide care, including threatening to cut federal funding and grants.
But the executive order, by itself, doesn’t make providing gender-affirming care illegal, especially in the 24 states that don’t have any laws prohibiting care, said Craig Konnoth, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
“Right now, hospitals and health systems are subject to no requirements to do anything because the executive order is not self-enforcing or self-executing but rather it relies on agencies to promulgate various kinds of agency actions,” he said.
Denver Health in Colorado has stopped performing gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19, according to a statement sent to . The University of Colorado Health has also taken similar action.
Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago told it’s reviewing the clinical gender care services it offers to patients and families.
Virginia Commonwealth University and Children’s Hospital of Richmond have suspended gender-affirming medications and surgical procedures for patients under 19, according to statements on their websites. University of Virginia Health said it’s suspended all gender-affirming care for patients for those under 19 but ensures appointments will be maintained to discuss different care options.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to healthcare systems reminding them of state laws that require hospitals to provide this type of care while also ensuring that federal funding won’t be affected by an executive order. The letter came out shortly after media reports indicated that NYU Langone in New York City, which did not respond to ‘s request for comment, canceled appointments.
Videos posted on social media showed hundreds gathering outside NYU Langone in Manhattan Monday night to protest hospitals pausing gender-affirming care for minors.
Colorado, Illinois, Virginia and New York don’t have laws prohibiting gender-affirming care to minors, according to a KFF analysis of state data.
While the executive order has no immediate repercussions for hospitals, Konnoth says losing federal funding and grants is a serious threat. It would effectively “shut down” operations that provide other types of life-saving care and research.
“Providers are scared, and they’re not just scared that their funding is going to be cut. They’re scared for their lives,” Konnoth said. “An executive order like this is meant to rile up the base and ferment unrest and create threats against providers.”
Kimberly Vered Shashoua, an online therapist at Vered Counseling for patients in Texas and North Carolina, said her transgender patients are also feeling “scared, confused and overwhelmed” as a result of hospital actions and executive orders.
“Many teens don’t understand why these executive orders exist,” she said. “It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that people who don’t know you hate you for existing.”
Research shows young people who identify as transgender and nonbinary are at higher risk for negative mental health outcomes, including suicide. State laws targeting transgender people made trans and nonbinary people aged 13 to 24 more likely to attempt suicide in the past year, according to a recent survey conducted by the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization.
Laws in several southern states like Texas and North Carolina prohibit doctors from prescribing gender-affirming care medications and surgeries to transgender minors, but experts say many patients travel to states where it’s legal to obtain care – especially Virginia, where two major hospital systems announced suspending care.
“Because so many southern states have stopped providing care, Virginia became a keen provider in the south,” Konnoth said. “Some people were reliant on Virginia.”
The executive order states doctors are “maiming and sterilizing” children and using “chemical and surgical mutilation” tools. But that’s not how gender-affirming care is outlined by U.S. professional medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The White House released a letter Monday highlighting the executive order’s impact on the few hospitals that decided to suspend care in non-ban states, which ended “promises made, promises kept – again.”
Some hospitals may be reacting swiftly to Trump’s executive orders but most are weighing their options while continuing to provide care, said Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, a pediatrician and former co-lead of the Youth Multidisciplinary Gender Team at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Alabama law prohibits prescribing puberty blockers and hormones for gender dysphoria in minors.
“The vast majority of larger programs in non-ban states are watching closely and carefully but appreciating an executive order for what it is,” she said. “Not a law but simply a messaging tool that is intended to enhance chaos and uncertainty and fear.”
This story was updated to add new information.
Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected].
