Washington, D.C. Newsroom
CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY – President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris could prompt major changes to the federal government’s promotion of transgender ideology and the endorsement of gender transitions for children, according to scholars closely watching the issue.
“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed in our children is an act of child abuse,” Trump said earlier this year in a campaign video. “… On Day 1, I will revoke [President] Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender-affirming care.”
In 24 states, doctors can still legally facilitate gender transitions for minors through transgender drugs and surgeries. Twenty-six states have either banned or put limits on gender transitions for minors.
Although most legislative debates about so-called gender transitions for children occur at the state level, Biden’s administration used regulatory agencies and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to try to expand access. Before his presidency, the issue was not on the minds of most Americans or most politicians.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for example, issued a regulation that interpreted “sex discrimination” bans within the Affordable Care Act to include discrimination based on a person’s self-asserted gender identity.
Under the rule, any health care provider or insurer not covering surgeries or drugs for gender transitions would lose federal funding. This rule applies regardless of whether the patient is an adult or a minor but is currently unenforceable because it has been blocked by a judge.
Biden’s DOJ also sued Tennessee because the state does not allow doctors to facilitate surgical or drug-induced gender transitions on children. The DOJ based its arguments on laws that prohibit sex discrimination and the case will be heard by the United States Supreme Court.
The administration also revised Title IX protections to redefine sex discrimination to include any discrimination based on gender identity.
This could have forced publicly funded schools and colleges to allow biological men in women’s locker rooms, dormitories, and athletic competitions but was blocked by multiple court rulings …
