A federal judge in Seattle has blocked President Trump's plan to pull federal funding from any institution that participates in gender manipulation and mutilation – including puberty blockers, surgical procedures to remove or otherwise alter reproductive organs, and behavioral training on how to present oneself more similarly to the opposite sex.
U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King previously granted a two-week restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota sued the Trump administration. Colorado later joined the case.
When King's temporary order expired at the end of February, she issued the long-term preliminary injunction blocking most of Trump's plan pending a final decision on the merits of the case.
Martha Shoultz, co-founder of the international Partners for Ethical Care, says the order is "purely political" and does not benefit patients.
"It's a tragedy that any judge would make a ruling like this without even looking into the facts of how safe or unsafe this type of medical treatment is," she laments. "We believe President Trump's order was lifesaving for children, and we just wish it had gone further and also included young adults who are even more often the victims of this kind of predatory medicine."
Noting the European countries that have researched the effects of these procedures have found no proven benefit to any of it, Shoultz says it all comes down to money.
"The gender industry is a multibillion-dollar industry, and it connects with so many various other sex-related industries," she explains. "You have sex trafficking, you have pornography, you have sex toys … and surrogacy. The biggest, of course, is the pharmaceutical and medical industry."
Meanwhile, the hospitals that provide this form of "care" have admitted that transitioning children creates patients for life, which brings in a fortune. Shoultz calls it "heinous."
On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.
