Judge extends block on Trump’s trans youth healthcare executive order

A federal judge has blocked enforcement of an executive order signed by Donald Trump that threatens federal funding for any medical institution providing gender-affirming care to transgender youngsters.

The preliminary injunction issued by Maryland judge Brendan Hurson extends a temporary restraining order that was set to expire on Wednesday (5 March).

Trump signed an executive order in January stating that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist or support” gender-affirming care for anyone under the age of 19. As a result, hospitals across the US suspended care for trans youngsters, leaving thousands of people in limbo.

A lawsuit opposing the executive order was filed just days later by Lambda Legal, PFLAG, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland, on behalf of trans adults, adolescents and their families whose care has been disrupted by Trump’s move.

On Tuesday (4 March,) Hurson ordered the defendants, including Trump, the department of health and other federal officials and agencies, to file a status report by Tuesday (11 March).

“Plaintiffs have established that the hardship they are suffering, as well as the hardship PFLAG’s members are experiencing, are caused by the discontinuation of what has been deemed by medical professionals to be essential care,” Hurson wrote in his ruling.

“This hardship comes as a result of the conditioning on federal funding outlined in the executive orders and is non-speculative, concrete and potentially catastrophic.

“Specifically, the sudden denial or interruption of [the] plaintiffs’ medical care has caused, or is expected to soon cause, unwanted physical changes, depression, increased anxiety, heightened gender dysphoria, severe distress, risk of suicide, uncertainty about how to obtain medical care, impediments to maintaining a social life, and fear of discrimination – including hate crimes.”

The defendants’ “assertion that these injuries are nothing more than ‘hypothetical’ and ‘incidental’ [is] blatantly contradicted by the record”, the judge added.

“Plaintiffs have demonstrated that hardship would result in the absence of judicial review.”

Commenting on the judge’s ruling, the chief executive of PFLAG National, Brian K Bond, said: “Again, the court has ruled to ensure hospitals, doctors and healthcare professionals in our communities can continue the work to keep our families healthy. Transgender people and their supportive parents and families are good and decent people who deserve the freedom to be themselves and to thrive.

“PFLAG National and our vast network of chapters, members and supporters will continue to ensure that love leads in this fight for justice for transgender people.”

Meanwhile, Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said the decision “provides relief to transgender young people, their families and their medical providers, who have been thrown into chaos by this administration”.

Block went on to say: “This order from [the] president is a direct effort to threaten the well-being of transgender people while denying them equal protection under the law, enacted by coercing doctors to follow Trump’s own ideology rather than their best medical judgment.

“As judge Hurson has said, it is hard to fathom a form of discrimination more nefarious than that which pretends the group of people being targeted doesn’t even exist.”

Since re-entering the White House, Trump has signed executive orders declaring the US will only recognise the two sexes assigned at birth, male and female, and banning transgender people from serving in the military, as well as restricting gender-affirming healthcare for trans people under the age 19.

He has also looked to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes across the government and in the armed forces.

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