The Trump administration has ramped up its attacks on gender-affirming care as young people are identifying as transgender at a higher rate than their older counterparts.
Transgender Americans have been made a target of President Donald Trump’s second presidency since his first day in office, when he issued an executive order declaring the United States only recognizes two sexes: male and female. Since returning to the White House, the president has made more than 300 attacks against LGBTQ+ people, according to advocacy group GLAAD.
This week alone demonstrates the fervor with which the Trump administration has taken aim at transgender Americans across the country.
The Air Force ordered that military boards “must recommend separation” for transgender service members, circumventing the typical board review process that includes a “fair and impartial hearing.” A Yosemite National Park ranger who hung a trans pride flag at Yosemite’s El Capitan was terminated. MAGA world erupted when two students were suspended from a Virginia high school after a Title IX investigation found they sexually harassed a transgender student.
The Trump administration’s attacks against gender-affirming care, in particular, have ramped up this week amid a new analysis showing that 2.8 million Americans aged 13 and older identify as transgender.
Of that group, more than three-quarters are under 35 years old and one-quarter are between 13 and 17, suggesting more young people are likely to identify as transgender compared to their older counterparts, the Williams Institute, a UCLA Law think tank, found in an analysis released Wednesday.
“LGBTQ people, especially transgender youth, are more comfortable being themselves than ever before,” a GLAAD spokesperson told The Independent in an email. “No president or administration will ever censor us away.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
The report relied on data from a CDC survey. In an apparent remark on the political climate, the authors noted that they’re unclear about what data sources will be available in the future and said it’s “also unclear whether individuals’ willingness to disclose on surveys that they identify as transgender will remain unchanged in the years to come.”
In a direct onslaught on transgender youth, the Justice Department issued a subpoena to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia demanding records related to minors’ gender-affirming care, filings made public this week reveal.
Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the DOJ had issued subpoenas to more than 20 doctors and clinics involved in providing gender-affirming care to minors. “Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Bondi said in a statement in July.
The subpoena asks the hospital to produce documents that identify which patients were prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy, records related to diagnoses that formed the basis for prescribing these treatments, and documents related to informed consent and parental authorization. The DOJ wants documents dating back to January 2020, when no state had banned gender-affirming care. Now, 27 states have placed limits on such care, according to KFF.
“The subpoena is a breathtakingly invasive government overreach,” Jennifer L. Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights at legal advocacy group GLAD Law, told the Washington Post. “It’s specifically and strategically designed to intimidate health care providers and health care institutions into abandoning their patients.”
The GLAAD spokesperson suggested that the Justice Department instead “apply itself to exacting justice for the creeps in the Epstein files if they truly cared about keeping young people safe. Their energy is misdirected and intentional, and every American knows it.”
The Trump administration has been using different methods for months to try to seek such information.
A month before Bondi announced the subpoenas, the FBI urged the public to call in tips about any hospitals, clinics or providers performing gender affirming care.
In May, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent letters to hospitals asking for information about their policies and information related to gender-affirming care treatments. “Hospitals accepting federal funds are expected to meet rigorous quality standards and uphold the highest level of stewardship when it comes to public resources,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, CMS administrator, said.
The administration’s laser focus on the trans community — who make up just 1 percent of the population aged 13 and older, according to the analysis — extends far beyond collecting hospital data into policies.
Last Friday, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memo stating “chemical and surgical modification of an individual’s sex traits through medical interventions (to include ‘gender transition’ services)” will no longer be covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program in 2026.
The document notes that “counseling services for possible or diagnosed gender dysphoria must still be covered.”
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a lawyer and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, slammed the policy as “illegal.”
“This discriminatory policy denying medical care to government employees and their dependents is not only cruel—it is illegal,” he said in a statement. “The federal government cannot simply strip away essential healthcare coverage from transgender employees while providing comprehensive medical care to all other federal workers.”
This policy will also likely impact dependents of federal employees who may need access to such care.
The analysis revealed young people are more likely to identify as trans than adults. Among those aged 13 to 17 in the U.S., 3.3 percent identify as transgender, the analysis found; by contrast, of all U.S. adults, just 0.8 percent identify as transgender.
On Thursday, the Trump administration unveiled its latest attack on trans minors by terminating the California State Personal Responsibility Education Program, a federal grant aiming to educate young people on both abstinence and contraception. The grant was worth $12 million, Reuters reported.
“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” Andrew Gradison, the acting assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.”
Defunding the grant marks the latest salvo in the administration’s battle with California over transgender rights. Last month, the Trump administration sued California’s department of education over its policy to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.
The Independent has reached out to the state’s department of education for comment.
“If it’s a day ending in y, President Trump is attacking kids’ safety, health, and access to education as part of his culture war,” a spokesperson from California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office told The Independent in a statement.
