As the Trump administration seeks exhaustive and unprecedented access to transgender youth medical records, families are taking to court to fight back.
Families in New York and California recently sued to block major hospital systems from complying with federal criminal subpoenas ordering the release of medical information around gender-affirming care for trans minors. Two separate lawsuits…
A Senate hearing on gender-affirming care for minors on Wednesday became a fight over who gets to make decisions for transgender children, whether politicians should override doctors and parents, and whether the Trump administration’s escalating campaign against gender-affirming care is rooted in concern for children or hostility toward transgender people.
The hearing, convened by Republican…
A group of California families with transgender children is asking a federal court to block the Trump administration from obtaining confidential medical records through a Texas grand jury subpoena.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenges a subpoena issued by federal prosecutors in Texas seeking records from Lucile Packard…
A Kansas judge temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a ban on gender-affirming care for youth, ruling that a legal challenge arguing the law violates parental rights is likely to succeed.
Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom issued an injunction on the law, saying a lawsuit challenging the statute under the Kansas Constitution has a strong likelihood of prevailing, according to…
LGBTQ+ advocates in Wisconsin are calling on two major hospitals to resume gender-affirming care for youth, arguing that providers are now protected by a federal court ruling blocking the Trump administration’s policy.
On Thursday, more than 65 Wisconsin organizations published an open letter to both the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Children’s Wisconsin, which suspended the services…
The Colorado Supreme Court has ordered the Children’s Hospital Colorado to resume gender-affirming care for minor patients. A 5-3 ruling came after the hospital stopped care amid funding threats that stepped up after President Donald Trump’s return to power.
Justices for the state court said the decision to abruptly end care earlier this year wrongly harmed patients.
“Petitioners and other…
“I have never seen an order like this."
That's how an attorney for Rhode Island's Child Advocate's office described the unusual order by a conservative federal judge in Texas — Judge Reed O’Connor wants to get his hands on the private medical records of transgender children in the Ocean State, essentially sidestepping the intentions of another lower court that sought to protect those…
For years, Missouri has been one of the country’s most aggressive testing grounds for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. It’s a Republican-controlled state where lawmakers have repeatedly introduced bills targeting transgender youth, drag performers, school policies, and gender expression as part of the broader national culture war over LGBTQ+ rights. This year was no exception.
Missouri Republicans…
One of the country’s premier pediatric hospitals is agreeing not only to abandon transgender youth care, but to help construct a new medical framework around the idea that transition itself is harmful.
The Trump administration and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced what they called a “landmark” settlement Friday with one of the nation’s largest children’s hospitals, forcing the end…
Federal attorneys are demanding that a transgender health program in New York City turn over sensitive records concerning youth patients, including medical assessments, intake forms, insurance claims, and “documents sufficient to identify each patient,” according to a subpoena made public this week.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas subpoenaed NYU Langone Health…
A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump issued a blistering opinion Wednesday night, accusing the Trump administration’s Justice Department of "appalling" behavior, including misleading courts, manipulating the judicial system, and targeting transgender youth through what she concluded was an unlawful effort to obtain deeply sensitive medical records.
In a 24-page ruling, Rhode…
The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Texas has issued a subpoena for the medical records of trans youth who received gender-affirming care from NYU Langone Health, a New York-based hospital system, since 2020.
NYU Langone notified patients of the grand jury subpoena on Monday and said it was one of several health institutions to receive it. Under the New York State Shield…
New Jersey lawmakers considered legal protections for transgender patients and health care providers for the first time.
The state Senate Health, Human Services, and Senior Citizens Committee voted 5-2 to advance a bill that would protect patients and providers who access or provide legally protected health care activities targeted in other states. The legislation specifically covers…
As the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against transgender people’s healthcare, families across the country are asking a federal court to stop the Justice Department from obtaining the private medical records of transgender children.
Eleven families filed a proposed nationwide class action Saturday in federal court in Maryland seeking to block the Department of Justice from…
Transphobes with law degrees could soon land $25,000 bonuses with the Justice Department.
New job listings for attorneys in the Civil Division are advertising those bonuses for attorneys interested in investigating youth transgender treatments, according to a new report in Bloomberg Law. The bonuses are also being offered to those interested in enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration…
Rhode Island officials are refusing to turn over private medical records for trans youth to the Trump administration.
The Ocean State’s Office of Child Advocate has filed an emergency motion in federal court to quash a demand from the Justice Department seeking medical information for minors treated for gender dysphoria.
“The medical records of these children contain private information…
Right-wing activists blew up last week over allegations that a trans woman fled with her child to Cuba to obtain gender-affirming surgery. But was that based on anything more than a single overheard comment?
The FBI sent a plane to Cuba, a rare step in a custodial investigation, before the Justice Department trumpeted the arrest of Rose Inessa-Ethington and her partner, Blue, and alleged…
For years, anti-transgender activists have claimed that the vast majority of children and young adults who come out as trans, nonbinary, or otherwise gender-nonconforming are simply going through a phase. That argument holds that many will eventually reject their gender identity and return to living as the sex they were assigned at birth. Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University now say…
Many hospitals that cut off youth from gender-affirming care over concerns around the Trump administration are remaining silent on whether they will resume care, despite a federal court giving their programs legal clearance.
Last December, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, directed hospitals across the country to…
The FBI sent a government plane to Cuba to prevent a transgender parent from providing her child with gender-affirming care.
According to court filings first reported by __The__ _New York Times_ , federal authorities took the unusual step as part of an international parental kidnapping investigation stemming from a custody dispute. The FBI believes Rose Inessa-Ethington, a transgender woman,…
A federal judge in Oregon on Saturday forcefully struck down Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to impose far-reaching restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, ruling the policy unlawful and blocking its enforcement in the states that challenged it.
In a final judgment dated April 18, U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai vacated the so-called…
The Tennessee Senate on Monday passed an amended version of SB676, a bill that would require the state to collect detailed data on transgender patients. The legislation now returns to the Tennessee House of Representatives, where lawmakers must decide whether to accept the Senate’s changes before sending it to Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
The bill requires clinics and insurers to submit…
Minnesota’s largest pediatric health system is restoring gender-affirming care for minors after a federal judge blocked a Trump administration effort to label the treatment unsafe, reversing a suspension that had disrupted care for families across the state.
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Children’s Minnesota said it…
The American Medical Association is rejecting claims it has stepped back from support for gender-affirming care, saying its guidance remains unchanged even as political pressure and public confusion intensify.
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In an interview with The Advocate , Alex Sheldon, executive…
Tuesday is Trans Day of Visibility, an annual day of observance on March 31 focused on highlighting trans history and issues affecting the trans community.
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Across the United States, trans people face growing difficulties in accessing gender-affirming care, like hormone therapy and…
Tennessee lawmakers on Thursday advanced a bill that critics say could lay the groundwork for something more sinister than its text alone suggests: a system that doesn’t just regulate transgender health care, but maps trans people.
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The Tennessee House passed House Bill 754 after a…
Tennessee lawmakers advanced a bill that could create a registry of transgender people in the Volunteer State.
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The Republican-backed legislation, presented as a requirement that insurance companies cover detransition-related care, was placed on the House calendar for a vote on Thursday.…
An Oregon judge said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. overstepped when he overruled state governments and declared gender-affirming care for minors unsafe nationwide.
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U.S. District Court Judge Mustafa Kasubhai said in a hearing that he will vacate a declaration…
A new phase in the fight over transgender rights is unfolding, not in legislatures, but at the ballot box.
In at least four states, voters are poised to decide measures targeting transgender people in 2026, as a coordinated wave of Republican proposals advances through citizen initiatives and legislative referrals. Some have already qualified for the ballot, while others are moving…
For _Texas_ children with special medical needs, a 2023 state law banning gender-affirming care for minors has had unplanned consequences, according to _a new investigation_ by __The Texas Tribune__.
Texas _passed a law_ in June 2023 banning doctors from providing residents under age 18 gender-affirming care, blocking hormone therapy as well as gender-affirming surgeries, which are already…