White House anti-gender-affirming care post is full of lies

A new post on the White House website details the Trump administration’s actions against gender-affirming care for transgender minors — and it’s full of misleading information and outright lies.

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The post, which went up Monday, describes this care as “chemical and surgical mutilation” and “immoral, unjust, and disproven practices.”

It notes Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal departments to cease “funding, sponsoring, assisting, or facilitating” such care. “Section 3(i) directs agencies to rescind or amend all policies that rely on the ‘Standards of Care Version 8’ developed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH),” it says. “These standards were not drafted based on scientific evidence, but on political considerations.”

In reality, gender-affirming care for both minors and adults is backed by scientific evidence and supported by the American Medical Association and every other major medical group.

Admiral Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health in President Joe Biden’s administration, published “Federal guidance titled ‘Gender-affirming Care and Young People,’ which promoted the chemical sterilization and surgical mutilation of minors,” the post goes on. After Trump took office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services removed guidance from its website, “along with other pseudo-scientific information,” the post says. HHS was forced to restore the guidance by a court order, but with “a notice that it disavows Levine’s document — and all materials that cite WPATH — in the strongest possible terms,” The White House post says.

Again, this is not “pseudo-scientific information” but genuine science. Gender-affirming care for trans minors usually consists of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The effects of puberty blockers are reversible, and they do not cause sterility if treatment is stopped. Most of the effects of cross-sex hormones are reversible of treatment is stopped as well, and they do not necessarily cause sterility. Genital surgery is almost never performed on minors, although some undergo top surgery.

The post also notes that agencies within HHS have “alerted providers to the dangers of chemical mutilation as well as the lack of medical evidence supporting their use.” Again, much medical evidence supports their use. It says HHS has directed a study for best practices to treat minors “who have asserted gender dysphoria,” but actually, best practices are well known and include puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

It continues by laying out legal actions the federal government plans to take against care providers. The Department of Justice “has prepared guidance … prioritizing protection against female genital mutilation, and will convene State Attorneys General to coordinate enforcement,” it says. “It has also initiated investigations of multiple entities that have misled the public about the long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.”

“DOJ has drafted and submitted legislation creating a private right of action, with a long statute of limitations, for children whose bodies have been chemically and surgically damaged and their parents, for additional review,” the post concludes. “DOJ will also establish a ‘Parental Rights Task Force’ to vindicate the rights of parents in states like California, where parental refusal to consent to the mutilation of their children can enable the state to remove children from parental custody, and to further uphold parents’ recognized constitutional rights.”

However, in 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have made judges ruling in child custody cases consider whether a child’s parents were affirming of the child’s gender identity.

Also, it’s worth noting that the Department of Defense is reinstating gender-affirming care for trans adults who serve in the military. Trump’s trans military ban has been blocked in court, leading to the move.