The Children and Families Administration has formally rescinded a Biden-era federal rule which required child welfare agencies, including foster agencies, to set aside “affirming” Designated Placements for youth who identify as LGBTQ. The Texas Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit in September of 2024 arguing that the rule is arbitrary and capricious, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Spending Clause. In June of 2025, a U.S. District Court vacated the rule in its entirety, determining that it exceeded HHS’ statutory authority. “To ensure clarity for the public and regulated entities, CFA is removing the provisions from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR),” CFA explains.
After NPR reported that the Trump administration planned to withdraw a proposed rule that would make prohibitions on youth gender medicine a condition for hospitals to participate in Medicare and Medicaid, the administration has denied the reporting. “The Department has not withdrawn or reversed course on the [proposed gender-affirming care] rule,” an HHS social media account wrote on X. “HHS and CMS continue to follow statutory requirements by reviewing comments, and we intend to issue a final rule. HHS remains committed to protecting children from potentially lifelong, irreversible, and harmful sex‑rejecting interventions.” NPR notes that although the rule has not been withdrawn, it also hasn’t advanced to the Office of Management and Budget. “By not withdrawing the rule, CMS can keep the threat of doing so alive and continue to discourage providers from offering the care — even if the rule is never finalized," speculates Katie Keith, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at Georgetown University.
A U.S. District Judge is allowing the FTC to proceed with a lawsuit against the World Professional Association For Transgender Health that alleges that the organization misled the public by making unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of pediatric medical transition. The lawsuit is joined by Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas. The day before the FTC filed the lawsuit, the Northern District of Texas issued WPATH a federal subpoena requesting information. In the most recent ruling, the court rejected WPATH’s request for a preliminary injunction, and relatedly, the organization’s claim that it would be irreparably harmed by allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
According to journalist Ben Ryan, the National Institute of Health’s controversial Trans Youth Care Study, launched in 2015, is out of grant funding to pursue research on the long-term outcomes of youth medical transition. Since its inception, the Trans Youth Care Study has attracted controversy. The main paper to come out of the study, Chen et al. 2023, only looked at the impact of interventions after two years, and overstated its findings and conclusions. As Jesse Singal pointed out at the time, the study lacked a control group and couldn’t make causal determinations, while only biological girls showed (mild) improvement. Hanging over the study is also the reality that two youths enrolled in the research protocol killed themselves during data collection. The puberty blocker component of the study has also drawn considerable attention after researcher Olson-Kennedy told the New York Times that the researchers were holding off on publication because of how their findings could be weaponized to undermine access to treatment.
Writing for Skeptic magazine, Lisa Selin Davis provides a comprehensive overview of the history of, and competing viewpoints on, youth gender medicine. Davis's piece walks readers through the history of the field and contextualizes how it became a culture war battleground. Davis pays particular attention to medical practice reversals abroad, WPATH’s suppression of evidence, and recent developments in the United States, including the American Society of Plastic Surgeon’s position statement against surgical interventions for minors. Despite the difficulty of cutting through political polarization, Davis remains cautiously optimistic that scientific truth will ultimately prevail. “What we can do is continue to calmly state the facts that do exist, and help people understand the complexity of gender-affirming care, outside of politics. Those for it, and those against, almost always have the same goal in mind: the well-being of children,” she concludes.
Two Maryland parents have filed a federal lawsuit against the Anne Arundel County Board of Education over allegations that school staff “socially transitioned” their child without their knowledge or consent, in violation of their parental rights and religious beliefs. According to the lawsuit, the parents learned that their daughter was going by a male name and using male pronouns while at school. A school policy asserts that “every student has the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that correspond to the student’s gender identity.” The lawsuit was filed by America First Legal.
UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, has urged political leaders in the UK to support policy implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of sex, which Alsalem argues is necessary to safeguard the rights of women and girls. In April 2025, the UK’s Supreme Court determined that under the Equality Act of 2010, the legal definition of “sex” reflects biological sex and not “gender identity.” Subsequent guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, however, has attracted the ire of activists who argue that the guidance discriminates against the trans-identified. Alsalem notes that human rights law allows sex-based measures when they serve a legitimate purpose and are necessary to protect the human rights of women and girls. “It is difficult to reconcile opposition to lawful single-sex services with repeated commitments to ending violence against women and girls,” Alsalem argues.
Joseph Figliolia
Policy Analyst
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