Other forms of medical interventions used to facilitate gender transitions for minors include puberty-blocking drugs, which prevent the body from going through its natural developments during puberty, and hormone therapy, which increases estrogen and reduces testosterone in boys and increases testosterone and reduces estrogen in girls. This is also legal in more than half of the states in the country.
The shift comes about one week after court documents revealed that the Biden administration’s assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, Adm. Rachel Levine, pressured at least one health care association to remove proposed guidelines that would have discouraged doctors from providing sex-change drugs and surgeries to young children.
According to emails included in the court documents, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) removed its age-based recommendations after Levine — who identifies as transgender — asked them to eliminate those suggestions. Internal emails from WPATH also revealed that the association does not have evidence to support the efficacy of gender transitions for minors: “We are painfully aware of the gaps in the literature and the kinds of research that are needed to support our recommendations.”
Prior to the recent White House statements, the administration has consistently criticized state laws that prohibit doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on minors.
In 2022, a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Justice to states enacting these restrictions claimed that the laws were discriminatory toward people who identify as transgender and might violate the equal protection clause. That same year, Biden also signed executive orders meant to expand access to transgender medical interventions for minors. In a statement, the White House referred to lawmakers who imposed the restrictions as “bullies targeting LGBTQI+ people.”
The administration’s shift has angered some of its allies, such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which supports the legality of sex-change surgeries for minors.