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Trump's latest order will devastate innocent trans youth and their families

worried transgender teenager
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Trans children only want to be their authentic selves, and this action will have severe repercussions, John Casey writes.


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The menacing executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” that restricts federal funding and support for gender-affirming care for transgender minors, is a gross lie and work of fiction.

It is also a deeply harmful piece of policy that will literally be the difference between life and death for trans youth. These human beings are already under extreme duress. What Trump did today goes beyond being incredibly dangerous.

Trans kids are not an issue – they are loving, caring, breathing humans, and their lives are being put at severe risk.

Trump’s latest action continues his targeting of the LGBTQ+ community. From banning transgender individuals from military service to removing LGBTQ+ mentions from government websites, he’s on a tear to consistently marginalize an already vulnerable population.

This most recent attack, couched in the language of “protecting children,” is perhaps the most egregious. It weaponizes fear and misinformation to attempt to strip away essential healthcare and dignity from transgender youth.

Trump’s policy is an attack on the very fabric of healthcare for transgender youth and a blatant overreach into family and medical decisions that should be free from government interference. This order, which targets the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries for anyone under 19, is built on a foundation of misinformation and disregard for the voices of medical professionals and families who are directly affected. The ACLU has already signaled that it will challenge the order in court.

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In 2023, I talked to Dr. Katarina Ferrucci, who has specialized in understanding the quality of care among gender-minority individuals in the U.S., and that includes the trans youth population.

“Among most providers and professional associations, there is consensus that research and outcomes have proven gender-affirming care to be necessary and lifesaving for children, adolescents, and adults,” Ferrucci pointed out. “Treating them as an issue directly calls into question the legitimacy of someone’s existence and the procedures and treatments that can help someone feel aligned in the way that their body and mind are informing them is correct,”

The core of this executive order is the absurd claim that gender-affirming care constitutes “chemical and surgical mutilation.” This inflammatory language deliberately distorts the reality of medical treatments that have been thoroughly studied and shown to be not only safe but also lifesaving.

According to organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), gender-affirming care is evidence-based and essential for the well-being of transgender individuals.

What’s baffling is that transphobic people like Trump want the public to believe that a child goes to school one a day as a boy, and comes home as a girl. He treats it as if it’s this spur-of-the-moment decision that is not thought out – that’s how Trump operates, but not caring and thoughtful parents of trans youth, who take the time to understand and work with their child, and to do what’s best for them

That’s why this care often includes puberty blockers, which temporarily pause puberty to give young people and their families time to explore their options, and hormone therapies, which help align a person’s physical characteristics with their gender identity. These interventions are reversible and carefully monitored and are administered with the guidance of trained medical professionals. They aren’t performed at schools in one day.

The stakes for denying this care could not be higher. Research consistently shows that access to gender-affirming care dramatically reduces rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among transgender youth. A 2020 study published in Pediatrics found that transgender teenagers who receive puberty blockers have significantly lower rates of suicidal ideation compared to those who do not.

Similarly, a 2022 study in JAMA Network Open showed that transgender and nonbinary youth who receive gender-affirming care report improved mental health outcomes within a year of starting treatment. Denying this care, as this executive order aims to do, places vulnerable youth at an increased risk of mental health crises, self-harm, and suicide.

Opponents of gender-affirming care often cite concerns about regret or irreversible changes. Yet the data tells a different story. The rate of regret following gender-affirming surgeries is exceedingly low, ranging from 0.3% to 3%, according to a 2021 review published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Moreover, surgeries are rarely performed on minors. Puberty blockers and hormone therapies, the treatments most often accessed by transgender youth, are either reversible or highly customizable based on the individual’s needs.

This executive order’s assertion that gender-affirming care is based on “junk science” is not only false but inexplicably ludicrous. It undermines the decades of research and clinical expertise that inform these treatments, replacing them with politically motivated rhetoric.

Furthermore, the order’s directives to rescind federal support for gender-affirming care and to defund institutions that provide such treatments threaten to destabilize healthcare systems that are already stretched thin. It’s not just transgender youth who will suffer; their families, peers, and communities will also bear the burden of this shortsighted and discriminatory policy.

By restricting access to gender-affirming care, Trump is inserting himself into deeply personal family decisions. Healthcare choices should be made by patients, their families, and their doctors, not politicians, and certainly not like ignorant people like Trump.

Parents of transgender children are already navigating an emotional and complex journey to support their kids. They do not need the additional stress of government interference. Decisions about medical treatments should prioritize the health and well-being of the child, guided by science and compassion, not political agendas.

The harm caused by this policy will reverberate far beyond the individual children who are denied care, and it’s likely to affect a generation of our youth in ways we can’t even fathom. Families will face increased stress and trauma as they watch their children suffer. Communities will lose bright, talented young people who could have thrived with the right support. The mental health crisis among transgender youth will deepen, straining already overburdened healthcare and social service systems.

Rest assured, this action will have a domino effect, as states, predominately red, and localities rush to ban trans youth affirming care too.

These. Are. Children. Does the sadist in the White House and his un-Christian conspirators have any shred of compassion? This measure will have catastrophic consequences for the mental and physical health of countless young people and their families across the nation. May God be with them.

If you or someone you know needs mental health resources and support, please call, text, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit 988lifeline.org for 24/7 access to free and confidential services. Trans Lifeline, designed for transgender or gender-nonconforming people, can be reached at (877) 565-8860. The lifeline also provides resources to help with other crises, such as domestic violence situations. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 24 and younger), can be reached at (866) 488-7386. Users can also access chat services at TheTrevorProject.org/Help or text START to 678678.

Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ and allied community. Visit advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.


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John Casey

John Casey is senior editor of The Advocate, writing columns about political, societal, and topical issues with leading newsmakers of the day. The columns include interviews with Sam Altman, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Colman Domingo, Jennifer Coolidge, Kelly Ripa and Mark Counselos, Jamie Lee Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Nancy Pelosi, Tony Fauci, Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and many others. John spent 30 years working as a PR professional on Capitol Hill, Hollywood, the Nobel Prize-winning UN IPCC, and with four of the largest retailers in the U.S.
John Casey is senior editor of The Advocate, writing columns about political, societal, and topical issues with leading newsmakers of the day. The columns include interviews with Sam Altman, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Colman Domingo, Jennifer Coolidge, Kelly Ripa and Mark Counselos, Jamie Lee Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Nancy Pelosi, Tony Fauci, Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and many others. John spent 30 years working as a PR professional on Capitol Hill, Hollywood, the Nobel Prize-winning UN IPCC, and with four of the largest retailers in the U.S.