Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued President Donald Trump in federal court over his recent executive order aiming to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender youth younger than 19. Photo by Madison McVan/Minnesota Reformer.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and two other state attorneys general sued President Donald Trump in federal court Friday over his recent executive order aiming to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender youth younger than 19.
Trump on Jan. 28 signed a sweeping order to broadly limit access to gender-affirming care by halting funding via government-run insurance programs, including Medicaid and Medicare. The order also calls for federal agencies to cut off grants to hospitals and medical schools providing gender-affirming care to people under 19.
Ellison defended the health care in a statement: “Gender-affirming care is evidence based, provided by licensed and trained medical professionals, and provided with the consent of a young person’s parents or legal guardians,” Ellison said in a statement. “President Trump’s executive order is not only illegal, it’s mean-spirited and deeply hurtful.”
Major medical associations in the U.S., including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support the use of gender-affirming care for the treatment of gender dysphoria.
Ellison’s office said Trump’s executive order would also direct the Department of Justice to investigate states like Minnesota that have laws prohibiting the enforcement of another state’s law requiring a child to be taken from their parents for accessing gender-affirming care.
In 2023, the DFL-controlled Legislature passed a law making Minnesota a refuge for transgender people, protecting them from legal repercussions for traveling to Minnesota for gender-affirming health care. Last year, lawmakers also passed legislation to ensure gender-affirming care is covered by health insurance plans.
Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, and the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, in a statement said Minnesota will fight against attempts to discriminate against trans people.
“Transgender people do not deserve to be policed in our health care decisions or in our personal lives. Not by the president, the public or anyone else,” Finke said. “We do not need the president’s permission to live our authentic lives. In Minnesota, we will always fight for trans and nonbinary people, our health care access and all of our rights.”
Ellison, along with attorneys general from Washington and Oregon, argues in the federal suit that Trump’s executive order violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal-protection clause. The states are asking the court for an emergency order to block the executive order, as it will harm youth.
On Wednesday, Trump signed another executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. The president during his first days in office has signed a number of anti-trans executive orders, including one on his first day declaring that the federal government would only recognize two genders.