Lawsuit challenges Trump's executive order targeting gender-affirming care

Two transgender young adults, five trans adolescents and their families, and two organizations have filed a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to gut gender-affirming care for trans youth and some adults.

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The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland. It names Trump as a defendant, along with the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal officials and agencies. The plaintiffs are represented by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Maryland, and the law firms of Hogan Lovells and Jenner & Block.

“The order directs federal agencies to withhold funds from medical providers and institutions that offer gender-affirming medical treatments such as puberty suppressants and hormone therapies to anyone under 19, threatening to shut down access to essential health care that is already out-of-reach for many,” says a Lambda Legal press release. “If enforced, the order would deny critical federal funds to hospitals, clinics, doctors, and other providers, leading some provider networks to prematurely cancel appointments with transgender youth and announce they are ceasing care altogether.” These include Virginia Commonwealth University Health and NYU Langone in New York City.

This order and Trump’s earlier order declaring that the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female as assigned at birth, “were issued for the openly discriminatory purpose of preventing transgender people from expressing a gender identity different from their sex designated at birth — and expressing governmental disapproval of transgender people who, by definition, have a gender identity that does not align with their sex designated at birth,” the suit says. “These Orders are part of a government-wide effort by the Trump Administration to restrict legal protections and essential services for the transgender community.”

The trans minors and young adults in the suit have been thriving because they have had access to gender-affirming care, the document says, but Trump’s effort seeks to disrupt that. Some members of PFLAG, one of the organizations that joined the suit, have been receiving this care as well. GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, is also a plaintiff in the suit.

“These Executive Orders are unlawful and unconstitutional,” the lawsuit states. “Under our Constitution, it is Congress, not the President, who is vested with the power of the purse. The President does not have unilateral power to withhold federal funds that have been previously authorized by Congress and signed into law, and the President does not have the power to impose his own conditions on the use of funds when Congress has not delegated to him the power to do so.”

“The Executive Orders unconstitutionally usurp congressional authority by withholding lawfully appropriated federal funds from medical institutions, providers, and researchers, such as GLMA’s health professional members,” it continues. “They violate the rights of thousands of transgender people under nineteen, including the Transgender Plaintiffs, by depriving them of necessary medical care solely on the basis of their sex and transgender status. They also infringe upon parents’ fundamental rights … by overriding the aligned judgment of parents, adolescents, and their doctors regarding necessary medical care.”

The directives violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment, the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, the free speech clause of the First Amendment, and various federal laws, including the Affordable Care Act, the suit says. It seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions keeping the orders from going into effect. The lawyers said they will also file a request for an immediate restraining order blocking the directives.

“When the Tennessee legislature passed a law that banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, I knew we had to leave the state so that my daughter could continue receiving the care she needs,” Kristen Chapman of Richmond, Va., mother to 17-year-old plaintiff Willow, said in the press release. “We moved to Virginia in the summer of 2023, but struggled to find a provider that would accept our Medicaid insurance. As paying for her care out-of-pocket became prohibitively expensive, I tried for months to get an appointment at VCU, and I finally got an appointment for January 29, 2025. The day before our appointment, President Trump signed the executive order at issue in this case. The next day, just a few hours before our appointment, VCU told us they would not be able to provide Willow with care. I thought Virginia would be a safe place for me and my daughter. Instead, I am heartbroken, tired, and scared.”

“PFLAG parents are good and decent people who love their trans kids and want them to grow to become thriving, happy, healthy adults. Yet, President Trump and other politicians maliciously harm our families by taking away the ability to get doctor-prescribed medical care. These evil actions put trans and nonbinary young people in our families at risk—and we’re not putting up with it,” Brian K. Bond, chief executive officer of PFLAG National, said in the release. “To every transgender and nonbinary youth, every parent, every family, know this: PFLAG National is not backing down from this fight; PFLAG’s got you.”

“For decades, doctors and other health professionals have followed well-established medical standards to provide care that helps transgender youth thrive,” added Alex Sheldon, executive director of GLMA. “Now, an extreme political agenda is trying to overrule that expertise, putting young people and their providers in danger. GLMA is taking this fight to court because our members will not stand by while politicians try to criminalize the care they provide and deny medically necessary treatment to young people. We are confident that the law, the science, and history are on our side.”

“The President’s denial-of-care order is morally reprehensible and patently unlawful. The federal government – particularly, this administration – has no right to insert itself into conversations and decision-making that rightly belongs only to patients, their families, and their medical providers” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, Lambda Legal senior counsel and health care strategist. “This broadside condemns transgender young people to extreme and unnecessary pain and suffering, and for minors, it subjects their parents to agonized futility in caring for their child — all while denying them access to the same medically recommended health care that is readily available to their non-transgender peers.”

“President Trump has shown a clear determination to use every lever of government to drive transgender people out of public life,” noted Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project. [The] order lays out a clear plan to shut down access to lifesaving medical care for transgender youth nationwide, overriding the role of families and putting politics between patients and their doctors. We will not allow this dangerous, sweeping, and unconstitutional order to stand.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story listed the wrong law firm involved in the suit. We regret the error.