Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington Sue Trump To End Under 19 Trans Care Ban
The lawsuit is one of several moving against Trump's executive orders targeting transgender people in the military, healthcare, and international travel rights.
Early Friday morning, the attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota filed a lawsuit alongside three anonymous physicians challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 19. The lawsuit was submitted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. The named defendants include Trump himself, as well as the heads of several federal agencies, including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Agriculture Secretary Gary Washington, and NASA Administrator Janet Petro.
The lawsuit quickly notes that while the executive order threatens federal research and education grants for medical institutions that continue to provide gender-affirming care—potentially jeopardizing critical research on cancer, maternal health, diabetes, AIDS, and more—it lacks any inherent legal or medical authority. The plaintiffs argue, “The statute has no possible bearing on gender-affirming care. Rather, the Order invokes it solely to sow fear among providers and bully them out of providing gender-affirming care at all.” The lawsuit further asserts that both Trump and the order’s threats to criminally prosecute providers of gender-affirming care are legally baseless, describing the move as an effort to use the Department of Justice to “terrorize and criminalize providers of gender-affirming care and families of youth who receive such care.”
The plaintiffs outline the tangible harm that enforcement of this executive order would inflict on their states’ leading medical institutions and the facilities where the anonymous physicians practice. The order forces healthcare providers into an untenable position: compliance would mean abandoning their ethical and medical obligations to provide care—particularly to vulnerable populations—while defiance could result in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, jeopardizing critical medical services across numerous, unrelated fields.
The plaintiffs emphasize the executive order’s lack of scientific grounding, noting its reliance on pathologizing language that falsely equates essential, evidence-based medical care with “mutilation.” They argue that this characterization is rooted in “radical and false” conceptions of gender dysphoria rather than accepted medical science, which overwhelmingly supports the safety and efficacy of transgender care. Civil rights organization Advocates 4 Trans Equality’s Trans Health Project lists over two dozen leading medical organizations—including the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society—that endorse gender-affirming care. As recently as two months ago, the French Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology formally recommended gender-affirming care for transgender minors, reinforcing the global medical consensus.
The plaintiffs also highlight the executive order’s immediate and detrimental impact on the transgender community. Citing previous reporting from Erin in the Morning, the lawsuit references how multiple hospitals—including New York University - Langone, the University of Virginia, University of Colorado Health, and D.C. Children’s National Hospital—have already capitulated to the order, leaving transgender youth without critical care. They detail the toll this has taken on affected families, writing that “transgender youth and their parents are similarly terrified of the Order’s threats to eliminate life-saving care, as well as prosecute parents and providers. Transgender and gender-diverse youth report fears of their worlds ‘going dark’ if they cannot receive the care they need. And parents of transgender youth are preparing to split their families apart to leave the country rather than letting their children fall back into suicidality experienced before gender-affirming care.”
The plaintiffs argue that Trump’s executive order violates the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees protections against government persecution, as well as the Constitution’s separation of powers, contending that Trump is unlawfully attempting to regulate government spending without following the necessary legal processes. They further assert that the order infringes upon the Tenth Amendment, which delegates regulatory authority over matters like medicine to the states rather than the federal government. In their filing, they request a preliminary injunction within the next 14 days and ask the court to “restrain and enjoin” the defendants from enforcing the order, ultimately seeking a declaration that it is unconstitutional.
This lawsuit is not occurring in isolation. Also filed on the same day is a case in which transgender activist Ashton Orr, along with several other transgender individuals, is challenging Trump’s restrictions on changing gender markers on passports. The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), seeks to overturn the policy. The ACLU is also representing LGBTQ+ rights organizations PFLAG and GLMA, along with families of transgender youth, in a separate case opposing Trump’s executive order—focusing specifically on its direct impact on transgender individuals. This contrasts with the Washington lawsuit, which challenges the order based on its effects on medical providers. Meanwhile, Forbes reports that additional lawsuits have been filed over Trump’s alleged overreach of executive power, including his attempt to seize control of the U.S. Treasury through the newly created “Department of Government Efficiency,” also known as DOGE.
The legal battles against Trump’s executive overreach and far-right policies are only just beginning, with more lawsuits expected in the coming months targeting both the administration and DOGE head Elon Musk. While these fights play out in the courtroom, resistance is also mounting in the streets, where protests continue to erupt across the country. Some demonstrations center on the rights of transgender youth, others on the rights of immigrants facing intensified ICE enforcement, and many more challenge Trump’s broader attempts to consolidate power. No matter the issue, the opposition is vast and mobilized. Despite the administration’s efforts to dismantle protections and roll back rights, the transgender community—and those standing in solidarity—are making it clear that they will not back down.
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This is a relief to read. And I also think about the glaring hypocrisy in the argument for “states rights and parents’ rights,” which the far right is always screaming about. These anti-trans EOs seem to fly in the face of those far right assertions.
Also a personal story about the delusion on the right. My son is trans. He has been out since 6th grade, he is now 19 and fully transitioned. My dad, his grandfather, is a far right conservative. When we hang out with him he is respectful and caring about his grandson. He never misgenders him and has embraced his name and identity, since the moment he came out. And my son wants a relationship with his grandad. All of which is why we still hang out. And yet, just now, on the phone with my dad I expressed my fear and anxiety about what this administration is doing. His response, “you guys will be ok.” My response, “we don’t know that. You don’t know that. He’s scared to travel. He could be forced to detransition.” My dad, “that won’t happen.” Me, “It has happened before in this country. It has happened in other countries. We need to have a healthy concern about what’s happening right now.” His response, “He’ll be ok.”
I ended the conversation with asking him to think about his grandson. I reminded him that his grandson is just trying to exist in the world, and live his life, without being a target. He seemed to hear me. I don’t know if he will ever fully get it. There’s a level of personal delusion operating: MY grandson will be ok. All I can do is keep pushing him to think about these things. It’s exhausting, and the delusion is real. But it’s work I have to keep doing.
Yes, I strongly appreciate what the blue states are stepping up and doing.
At some point, it needs to be recognized by the courts that animus - pure and simple - is the motivating force behind these legislative attacks. GAC has existed for decades, and is supported by many major medical organizations - until conservatives came along and decided for whatever reason, they didn’t like it.