A4TE Condemns Trump Administration Attack on Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy

[Washington, D.C.] - Today, President Trump issued a broad ban on healthcare for trans youth, and Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Executive Director for Advocates for Trans Equality issued the following statement:  
 
“Only 8 days into his second term, President Donald Trump has blood on his hands. This executive order not only prohibits but intends to set forth a path to potentially criminalize the provision of safe, evidence-based, medically necessary gender-affirming care, endangering the lives of tens of thousands of transgender adolescents under the age of 19.  
“The evidence has continuously shown that when trans adolescents cannot access this care, they are at an increased risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidality. Despite claiming that this order “protects” children, this executive order does nothing more than seek to create federal policies that put the lives and safety of trans adolescents at risk. 

“Despite referring to expert consensus and scientifically rigorous standards of care as ‘junk science’, this order is built entirely on misinformation regarding this lifesaving field of healthcare, which has existed for over 5 decades. The executive order fundamentally mischaracterizes the safety and efficacy of transgender healthcare. This order bases its directives on unsubstantiated and fringe theories, which no legitimate body of medical experts has recognized and has been widely discredited. This order directs agencies to implement and enforce a wide range of existing and prospective policies to rob adolescents of their innate bodily autonomy and divest families of the highest quality of healthcare possible.  

“Contrary to the unsubstantiated claims made in this EO, trans adolescents know who they are with the same veracity as any child who is not trans. They are neither ‘impressionable’ nor ‘confused.’ They deserve better than to have their chances of living freely and authentically torn away from them by politicians who have no grasp on the science and history of this field of care.  

“Trump’s campaign of hate will not stop here. These attacks are part of a broader effort to push trans people out of public life entirely. The attacks on gender-affirming care for adolescents and adults alike are part of a much broader strategy to exert totalizing control over people’s bodies nationwide, whether that is trans people who simply seek access to medically necessary and consensual care, intersex and otherwise sex-variant people seeking freedom from non-consensual surgeries, or the rights of people of all genders to choose if, how, and when they become pregnant. 

“Denying trans youth medical care will not stop them from being trans. Our trans community survived long before we were ever recognized by the government. And to all trans young people reading this, you deserve so much better. This is a deeply frightening situation, but stripping trans people of accurate identification or banning us from institutions like the military will not erase us. Trans existence is unyielding, and we will endure.”  

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About A4TE 

Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE) is an organization that fights for the legal and political rights of transgender people in the United States. Introduced in July 2024 after the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund and the National Center for Transgender Equality merged, A4TE is the largest trans-led advocacy organization in the U.S. and brings together experts, advocates, and communities to shift government and society toward an equitable future where trans people live joyful lives without barriers.