Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is pausing the start of new gender-affirming treatment for patients under age 19. This comes after President Trump signed an executive order that seeks to cut federal funding and support for medical procedures that help young people transition from one gender to another. Hospitals in New York, Colorado, Virginia, and Washington state are also reportedly pausing such treatment. But attorneys general like California’s Rob Bonta say state laws require providers to continue this care.
Marlo Mack wrote How To Be A Girl under a pen name, and she’s the mom of a 17-year-old who’s been transitioning since age 4. They live in Washington state. She tells KCRW that it’s hard to explain how scary Trump’s move is for her and the dozens of families she speaks with daily, many of whom “are not sleeping very well right now.”
“My child has known since she was 3 years old, she told me she was not the boy that I thought she was,” Mack says. “This is not some something that's a phase. This is not something that I take lightly, or that her doctors take lightly. So she has been on blockers and taking estrogen, and is a beautiful young woman who has, I thought, a very bright future. But it's hard to see right now how that bright future is going to unfold if she cannot have access to this medical care.”
Mack says she doesn’t know how her daughter could live without blockers or estrogen: “This is care that is endorsed by every major medical association in this country, and this is life-saving care. We see over and over again that the kids who have this care, they not only do they survive, but they thrive. And being transgender becomes a footnote in a normal life of a child. … We see horrendously high rates of self-harm in the kids who are not getting supported by this care. Denying this care will cost us lives.”
She adds, “What we have is 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 13-year-olds who are scared beyond belief right now, who aren't sleeping, who aren't therefore able to do well in school. … Instead, they're worried if they have a future … and that is not the country we should be living in.”
More than one executive order has been issued, says Elana Redfield, federal policy director at UCLA’s Williams Institute, a legal and policy think tank on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“They create this idea that gender-affirming care is, they call it junk science. And in one order, they specifically describe gender ideology and say that federal funding shouldn’t be used for that. And another order … [tries] to ensure that federal funding wouldn't flow to organizations that provide this care. So that includes everything from trying to stop grants, to trying to stop research, to even trying to leverage the Attorney General's Office of the federal government to try to take various steps to prevent access to care,” Redfield explains.
She says these orders are designed to create chaos. “They create all kinds of expectations of liability for the providers, and of course create uncertainty around the future of their funding.”
However, Redfield points out that California has extensive protections around transgender people, gender identity, discrimination, and access to gender-affirming care.
As for medication, Mack says parents are grappling with that around-the-clock now. “What are our options? Who will take care of our children? I know many people who have the means to do so — are trying to move overseas. … This is basically all I do, and all I think about right now, is how can I get my child safely through the rest of her teenage years and safely into adulthood? … What we're being told by these executive orders is … our children do not exist, that they are not wanted here, and … we are criminals for supporting them.”
She adds, “I know the hospitals are in this just impossible situation where they're being told by our president, ‘Deny care for this small group of kids, or we're going to maybe take away funds that care for all the kids.’ … The hospitals don't want this, the medical providers don't want this. But what if this is your kid? Why does my kid not get the life-saving care for her medical condition, and the rest of them do? I mean, how could we possibly be making those decisions as a civilized country? No child should be denied medical care.”
An earlier version of the audio for this story incorrectly stated UCLA Health had also paused treatment for transgender patients. In a written statement, a UCLA spokesperson said, "there has been no change to treatments available at UCLA Health, and we continue to follow current law and practice evidence-based medicine."