The national LGBTQ+ organization Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, better known as PFLAG, filed a lawsuit Feb. 4 against President Donald Trump’s administration, fighting the executive order to withhold access to necessary medical care for transgender youth and young adults.
Executive Order 14187, filed Jan. 28, states that the United States will not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order prohibits the use of vital gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers, sex hormones and surgical procedures.
The law firms representing the plaintiffs — PFLAG, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, two transgender young adults, five transgender adolescents and their families — filed the lawsuit in the Federal Court of the District of Maryland, which will be followed by an “immediate restraining order against the enforcement of President Trump’s order,” according to PFLAG’s website.
PFLAG states that immediately following the order, members and supporters of the organization raised alarms that their transgender kids were having their medical appointments canceled and clinics providing gender-affirming care were closing down.
“PFLAG parents are good and decent people who love their trans kids and want them to grow up to become thriving, happy, healthy adults. Yet, President Trump and other politicians maliciously harm our families by denying them access to physician-prescribed, medically recommended care,” said Brian K. Bond, CEO of PFLAG, in a statement. “This order puts trans and nonbinary young people and their families at risk—and we’re not putting up with it. To every transgender and nonbinary youth and young adult, every parent, every family, know this: PFLAG National is not backing down from this fight; PFLAG’s got you.”
PFLAG National is also a plaintiff in other gender-affirming cases in North Carolina, Texas and Missouri. In past cases, the injunctions won by its legal team extended protections to its members in and of itself.
The organization’s website states, “A victory would make sure all federally-funded health care institutions would be able to continue providing the care to trans young people; there will not be an injunction that permits PFLAG members to keep getting care.”
The Campaign for Southern Equality has announced an emergency virtual town hall meeting, to be held Feb. 5, in response to trump’s executive order.
For more information on PFLAG’s lawsuit, visit PFLAG’s FAQs page on its website here.
