The Consequences of Trump’s Ban on Gender-Affirming Care

In today’s newsletter, the trans kids losing access to care, and then:

Families in New York and beyond are considering whether even liberal cities are safe.

The executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which the President signed at the end of January, declares that the United States will no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.” When it was issued, hospital systems that receive federal funds immediately began to call off care, even though the order goes against the guidance of long-established medical authorities on the treatment protocols for trans kids. In New York, which is supposed to be a safe-haven state, N.Y.U. Langone Health and Mount Sinai cancelled surgeries. Lawsuits have been filed, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, has said that withholding care violates state law—but many medical appointments have not been reinstated. “The fear of losing federal funds seems to be having its intended effect,” Emily Witt writes. Langone told one mother that her child could continue with puberty-blocker shots “for now.” As she share with Witt, “That ‘for now’ sent chills down my spine.”

Read the story »

Further reading: Witt tells the story of Willow, a trans teen who moved from Tennessee in order to find gender-affirming care.

P.S. “The Feminine Mystique,” by Betty Friedan, was published on this day in 1963. Louis Menand has explored why the book sparked a social revolution among American women. “The most brilliant thing about Friedan’s very brilliant book was her decision to call what was wrong with the lives of apparently comfortable and economically secure women ‘the problem that has no name,’ ” he writes, “and then to give it a name.” ♀️