NYS leads lawsuit over denial of health care to transgender youth by federal government

More than a dozen states — led by New York Attorney General Letitia James — sued the Trump administration for coordinating a federal campaign to "intimidate" health care providers into denying gender-affirming health care for transgender and nonbinary young people, according to court papers filed Friday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, said President Donald Trump and his administration have "relentlessly, cruelly, and unlawfully targeted transgender individuals  ... deny their very existence, banish transgender residents from the public square, and refuse them medically necessary healthcare." 

The coalition said that even in states where services for transgender and nonbinary people under the age of 19 are protected by law — including New York — health care providers are being threatened with criminal charges and investigations.

 "These threats have no basis in law," according to the lawsuit. "No federal law prohibits, much less criminalizes, the provision or receipt of gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents." 

The Trump administration is "ruthlessly targeting young people who already face immense barriers just to be seen and heard and are putting countless lives at risk in the process," James said in a statement.

In January, Trump signed an executive order stating the government will only recognize two sexes: male and female. It also calls on the government to take actions to end gender-affirming care for transgender people under the age of 19 — including stopping coverage with federally funded health insurance.

Gender-affirming care includes medical, mental health, surgical and other services based on how an individual person identifies, regardless of their sex assigned at birth. The suit asks the court to find the executive order against gender-affirming care unconstitutional.

"As Attorney General [Pam] Bondi has made clear, this Department of Justice will use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care,’ " a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice responded in an email to Newsday.

The lawsuit points out that several major hospitals and health systems in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California and other locations have canceled appointments or closed down care programs for transgender and nonbinary youth after the executive order was signed.

 New York State law specifically prohibits "discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression" and says that health care providers "cannot deny services or treat a person less well than others on the basis of their protected characteristics including sex and gender identity or expression," according to court papers. 

"The federal government is intentionally trying to make the lives of trans youth less possible," Kerry Thomas, a clinical social worker from East Northport told Newsday in an email. "When I transitioned a couple of decades ago, there was a lack of available care and it had a serious cost — it nearly cost me my life. Since then there has been a lot of progress in society including increased access to care, and we've seen the direct effect of the suicide rate in the community vastly decreasing. Now all that progress is at risk."

Joining James in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, and the governor of Pennsylvania.

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.