Bogus Trump Administration ‘Report’ Launders Reheated Anti-Trans Rhetoric to Attack Transition Medical Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In another blatant attack on the ability of transgender youth to access medically necessary health care, the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week released a sham of a report alleging that best-practice care at several hospitals was somehow fraudulent. Vice President J.D. Vance, who himself has a long and ugly history of attacking LGBTQ+ rights, called on equally compromised Attorney General Todd Blanche to launch another clearly politically-driven investigation.

"You cannot hand-pick a panel of anti-transgender activists, feed it research from anti-trans advocacy organizations, publish the result under an HHS banner, and call that independent science," said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. "This is the same kind of fact-free policymaking that saw the administration this week meddling with childhood vaccinations and taking Medicaid coverage for transition care away from low-income families. We can't lose sight of the fact that this obsessive and meritless campaign against transition care for youth is causing real harm - real people, families and their children, are suffering at the hands of their own government. It's barbaric, it's appalling, and it's a disgrace."

The new HHS report follows a devastating and deeply harmful new rule released Tuesday barring Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits from being used to treat transgender youth with best-practice health care recommended by their physician. For more on the Trump administration's obsessive attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, visit HRC's Accountability Tracker here.

These outrages are not going unchallenged. Last week, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the law firm Correia & Puth filed a class action lawsuit in federal court against the Trump administration's Office of Personnel Management for prohibiting health insurance coverage for gender-affirming care under the Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits plans.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the nation's largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people, with 3.6 million members and supporters. The HRC Foundation (a 501(c)(3)) works to ensure LGBTQ+ people are safe, seen and supported where it matters most: at school, at work and in every community across the country. From the courtroom to the classroom, from Congress to corporate America, HRC and the HRC Foundation build power through partnerships, storytelling, and action-working to create a future rooted in equity, freedom and belonging for all LGBTQ+ people.