The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has filed a lawsuit against Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools to block enforcement of controversial district guidance for trans-identified students that may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). The district’s guidance allegedly instructs staff to develop “social transition” policies for trans-identified students without requiring parental consent, or notification. “For decades, schools operated with little accountability as federal parental rights laws like FERPA and PPRA went unenforced, allowing some districts to cut parents out of deeply personal matters involving their own children,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “That era is over.”
Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland has adjusted its policies on “social transition” for trans-identified students to clarify that no practice or guideline will interfere with parental rights guaranteed under FERPA. The pivot comes after the Trump administration accused the district of misclassifying information about a child’s transgender status as confidential medical information that was not accessible to parents. “No policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA, and this includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns,” explained superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell in a letter.
Last Friday, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the legality of the administration’s policy of prohibiting trans-identified individuals from joining the military. While the Supreme Court granted a freeze on a federal judge’s order which blocked enforcement nationally, a U.S. district judge in a separate lawsuit blocked the policy from being specifically enforced on the plaintiffs in the suit. This ruling was later upheld by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. “If allowed to stand,” wrote U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the ruling “would represent an ‘unprecedented intervention into military affairs,’ in contravention of this Court’s precedents requiring ‘defer[ence] to the political branches’ military judgments.”
A coalition of 21 state attorneys general spearheaded by California AG Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit challenging a new CMS final rule, which prohibits federal Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement for medical transition procedures for minors. The lawsuit alleges that the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, existing Medicaid provisions, and the Spending Clause. A fourth alleged violation in the complaint is that the rule is “arbitrary and capricious.”
Writing for City Journal, Leor Sapir explains the significance of a new filing by WPATH—as part of the FTC’s lawsuit alleging WPATH committed consumer fraud—in which the organization hard pivots by arguing that its widely adopted guidelines for pediatric medical transition are simply “opinions” in a subject area characterized by “medical and scientific uncertainty.” As Sapir goes on to explain, this is a remarkable concession from WPATH, which previously held up its guidelines as the scientific and ethical gold standard for sex-distressed youth. Moreover, WPATH’s guidelines were later endorsed by major medical associations, insurers, and the Biden administration, despite failing to meet the criteria for clinical practice guidelines and a scandal involving the suppression of evidence reviews.
In an update to an earlier piece, Jesse Singal traces the origins of stock language endorsing pediatric gender medicine found in CNN coverage across dozens of articles and journalists. The language asserts that “Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based care...” As Singal explains, the language was repurposed from a press release featuring a quote by an American Medical Association board member. The main issue, however, is that this physician’s opinion was decontextualized and presented by CNN as “considered news judgment,” not the opinion of an AMA representative.
In Reality’s Last Stand, I wrote about the failures of the “affirming” paradigm to grapple with detransitioner stories that challenge the activist premises shaping youth gender medicine. To illustrate my point, I draw on a recent study in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy by researchers Lal and Levine which synthesizes detransitioner accounts to propose several psychological mechanisms shaping trans-identification and detransition. I go on to demonstrate the article’s implications for challenging key aspects of the affirmative model, our understanding of the clinical needs of trans-identified patients and detransitioners, and for formulating new clinical models that can better conceptualize and address the factors contributing to trans-identification.
The Welsh Gender Service in the UK is pausing “affirming” surgery appointments and referrals after data from 2025-2026 uncovered markedly higher referral rates in Wales compared to England. The peculiar finding caught the attention of NHS Wales’ Joint Commissioning Committee, which requested an independent review of referral and assessment protocols. In the interim, hormonal and psychological interventions will remain available to patients.
Joseph Figliolia
Policy Analyst
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