WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at cutting federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19, his latest move to roll back protections for transgender people across the country.
“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” Trump said in a statement.
The order directs that federally-run insurance programs, including TRICARE for military families and Medicaid, exclude coverage for such care and calls on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.
Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care. The new order suggests that practice could end and target hospitals and universities that receive federal money and provide the care.
It’s likely to be challenged in court.
The push is the latest by Trump to reverse policies by the Biden administration to protect transgender people and their care. On Monday, Trump directed the Pentagon to conduct a review that is likely to lead to them being barred from military service.
Hours after taking office last week, Trump signed another order that seeks to define sex as only male or female, not recognizing transgender, nonbinary or intersex people or the idea that gender can be fluid. Already that’s resulted in the State Department halting issuing passports with an “X” gender markers, forcing transgender people to apply for travel documents with markers that don’t match their identities.
Trump said he would address these issues during his campaign last year.
“It’s very clear that this order, in combination with the other orders that we’ve seen over the past week, are meant to not protect anyone in this country, but rather to single-mindedly drive out transgender people of all ages from all walks of civic life,” said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
Seldin said the ACLU is reviewing the order “to understand what, if anything, has immediate effect versus what needs to go through continued agency action.”
Even as transgender people have gained visibility and acceptance in some fronts, they’ve become major targets for social conservatives. In recent years, at least 26 states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. And most of those states face lawsuits, including one over Tennessee’s ban that’s pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republican-controlled states have also moved to keep transgender women and girls from competing in women’s or girls sports and to dictate which bathrooms transgender people can use, particularly in schools.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. AP reporter Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed to this article.