He voted for Trump. Now he’s worried his trans son will lose gender-affirming care

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A Trump voter is worried that his trans son will lose gender-affirming care access.

The father of a transgender man is now worried that his son may lose his gender-affirming care under Donald Trump — even though he voted for him.

Ashton Colby came out as trans in 2012 at the age of 19. The same year, he underwent top surgery. While Ashton was initially nervous to come out to his family, his father, Rick Colby, did not reject him, and even accompanied him to therapy and medical appointments. Ashton says now that his father's support literally "saved my life.”

Then Rick voted for Trump. And he seemingly has no regrets, even after Trump signed an executive order attempting to ban the life-saving care for youth that could have implications for adults as well.

“I agree with just about everything Trump is doing except for transgender people,” the father recently told CNN.

Trump's executive order, the so-called “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” order, targets the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries for anyone under 19, incorrectly referring to them as “chemical and surgical mutilation.” It directs federal agencies to rescind policies supporting such treatments, withdraw funding from institutions that provide them, and enforce existing laws limiting access to these procedures.

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Federal judges in Maryland and Washington have blocked the order, finding that it is likely unconstitutional and that Trump cannot impose such sweeping restrictions on medical providers. The ban may not be legally enforced as a lawsuit – filed by Lambda Legal, PFLAG, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Maryland, and law firms Jenner & Block and Hogan Lovells – moves forward. Still, several hospitals across the country have ceased providing the care out of an abundance of caution.

Rick said that he disagrees with the “extreme right,” which does not “believe being transgender is a real thing at all.” Rick even acknowledged that conservatives are trying to “erase them and make life difficult, even though transgender people are American citizens and are trying to participate in the American dream and live their lives to be left alone like everybody else."

Since Trump's attacks on the life-saving treatment, Republicans in Texas have proposed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care even for adults, and another that would make identifying as trans a felony, levying up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine for those who make "misleading" statements about their sex.

Ashton, who lives in Ohio, is now "nervous" that he may lose access to hormone therapy, as his provider relies on federal funding and has warned him that he may soon need to drive across state lines to Pennsylvania for his care. He said that he does not agree with his father's conservative views — noting that they voted for different candidates — but that he still feels "safe" with him.

Rick, whose vote helped facilitate the struggles his son is now experiencing, insists that "it doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is — my main concern is how to keep your child alive and help them to be happy and thrive and be productive members of society."

“I identify myself as a conservative Republican who’s a dad of a transgender son who I love and support. That sets them off, because it doesn’t fit the narrative, which is, ‘everybody’s on the left doing this,'" Rick said, adding, “It shows this is really an issue that transcends a political ideology, that there actually is an objective truth to it.”

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