Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump's Transgender Youth Order: Executive Orders Challenged Over Gender Identity and Medical Care Funding

A U.S. District Court Judge has granted a preliminary injunction against two Trump executive orders targeting transgender youth. The lawsuit, brought by attorneys general from Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington, argues that the orders violate the Fifth Amendment's equal protection clause and the Tenth Amendment's limitations on federal authority over state medical practices. Judge Lauren King ruled that the order declaring two genders "denies the very existence of transgender people and instead seeks to erase them from the federal vocabulary altogether and eliminate medical care for gender dysphoria at federally funded medical institutions." The executive orders in question, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism" and "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," aim to strip funding for federal programs that "promote gender ideology" and cut off funding for institutions providing transgender procedures for minors. A study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, surveying 107,583 U.S. patients from 2014 to 2024, found that individuals undergoing transgender surgeries were at a higher risk for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use disorders.