Brennen Brothers, news editor
On Friday, Feb. 7, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined attorneys and three unnamed doctors from Washington and Oregon to file a lawsuit against Pres. Donald Trump’s executive order that ends federal funding to medical institutions that provide gender-affirming care, shares MPR news. They continued to write that the executive order would only recognize two sexes, female and male. Additionally, it would restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender individuals under the age of 19.
The lawsuit states that the executive order will terminate over one billion dollars in federal funding that goes to medical schools and hospitals that conduct research and treat conditions, many not relating to gender-affirming care like “cancer, AIDS, diabetes, substance use disorder, mental health conditions, autism, aging, cardiovascular diseases, maternal health, and so much more.” The Office of Minnesota Attorney General says that the order directs the Department of Justice to investigate states who have passed a legislation similar to the one in Minnesota that protects people who travel to get gender-affirming care. The lawsuit continues by saying that many have stopped providing care due to fear of “federal law enforcement harassment or loss of medical research and education grants.”
NPR shares a quote from Harper Seldin, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), claiming, “This is written in a way that is meant to be broad, but also with a specific goal, which is to push trans and non-binary people out of civic life.” The order revokes a list of policies made by the former Pres. Joe Biden. It also calls for an end to funding of “gender ideology.”
This is written in a way that is meant to be broad, but also with a specific goal, which is to push trans and non-binary people out of civic life.
The executive order posted to the White House website defines gender ideology as “the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true.”
Teresa Nelson, the legal director for ACLU of Minnesota, says the executive order “will do very little to change practitioners’ ability to provide medical care, and it does not offer any legal basis for a denial of care at this point,” shares MPR News.
A mental health provider for the Department of Veterans Affairs spoke with NPR anonymously. They shared that if the policy blocks mental health care, they fear that suicide rates among transgender individuals may rise. A transgender woman who works in intelligence for a defense contractor also spoke to NPR anonymously, sharing that she will lose access to her workplace’s women’s bathroom. She continues to express her fear that she would lose her job and would need to move into her friend’s basement as she doesn’t feel comfortable signing a lease.
Disagreements regarding gender-affirming care continue to arise among lawmakers. Those receiving gender-affirming care can potentially anticipate a variety of outcomes.