NY AG Letitia James Bucks Executive Order
After President Trump issued an executive order telling hospitals across the nation to eschew gender-affirming care, New York’s Attorney General stepped in to tell NY hospitals to disregard that order.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
Last week, Donald Trump signed an executive order, dishonestly titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” that redefines pediatric patients up to 18 or 19 years old, says the World Professional Association for Transgender Health “lacks scientific integrity,” and repeatedly describes gender-affirming care in the most barbaric terms… with a predictable, if extremely weird, focus on the reproductive function of children.
Sections three and four of the order also command federal agencies to rescind any policies that rely on WPATH’s best practices and threaten to defund any organization that receives federal grant money unless they discontinue practices associated with GAC. Other highlights include removing GAC coverage from TRICARE and other federal insurers, as well as Medicaid and Medicare, and instructions for the Department of Justice to promote legislation that would give detransition grifters the right to litigate against physicians and medical institutions who treated them in accordance with their wishes and WPATH Standards of Care.
All that to say: It’s a doozy.
Thankfully, at least one legal authority is offering pushback against this unequivocally heinous executive order that seeks to deny Americans the right to seek the treatments and medicines that seem most appropriate to them.
On Monday, attorney general of New York Letitia James issued guidance to hospitals that they would be violating New York state’s anti-discrimination laws if they acquiesced to Trump’s executive order and refused to provide care to their patients.
“Regardless of the availability of federal funding, we write to further remind you of your obligations to comply with New York State laws,” the Monday morning letter stated. “Electing to refuse services to a class of individuals based on their protected status, such as withholding the availability of services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals, is discrimination under New York law.”
It’s heartening to see somebody, anybody, sticking to their guns and making overtures to protect our community these days. Just after Trump’s inauguration, when he issued an executive order stating that the United States government’s official stance on gender was that there are only two genders and that they cannot be changed by any means, James resisted the White House by tweeting, “President Trump can try to attack the transgender and nonbinary communities with directives and orders, but in New York, you have the right to be who you are. I'll always protect that right.”
This isn’t the first time James and Trump have butted heads; in 2022, she spearheaded the civil suit against Trump and his family for large-scale fraud after a years-long investigation. It’s also not the first time she’s taken direct action to defend transgender people against violations of their constitutional rights, having sued Nassau County last year over a trans athlete sports ban.
Though James’ commitment to the New Yorkers she represents is inspiring, not everybody is following suit. In a news release on Monday, the White House celebrated as hospitals across the country started taking actions to “downsize or eliminate their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ programs.” That includes health systems in James’ backyard like NYU Lagone, who have already begun complying with the executive order by denying trans patients the care they need.
It’s unclear how all of this will shake out in the long run. The Trump administration and the GOP continue to target one of the world’s most vulnerable minority groups, in spite of how incredibly small our community is, to score political points in a culture war that they hope will keep them in office forever.
Let’s hope that the efforts of people like Letitia James succeed, and inspire others to bravely defy these morally bereft ghouls who want to harm us and others like us.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
