Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has followed through on several of his campaign promises in regards to trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and intersex people. But a flurry of lawsuits from organizations across the country — including in New England — is actively pushing back on the flood of anti-trans executive orders from the administration.

Janson Wu, senior director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, told GBH’s Under the Radar that one of the most harmful executive orders is about federal funding for medical centers providing gender-affirming care for trans youth. The executive order has been put on pause for now, but Wu said this is an example of government overreach by the Trump administration.

“At the end of the day, health care decisions are really personal for each and every family, and they are best made — especially for young people, young people who are transgender — these decisions are best made by parents and doctors who know the situation best and are following best-practice medicine and not politicians,” Wu said.

Another executive order deals with trans students playing in girls’ athletic leagues. At a recent convening of the National Governors Association, President Trump had a heated exchange with Maine Gov. Janet Mills about whether the state was complying with the executive order. Mills asserted that Maine was following state and federal laws, which Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLAD Law, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said boils the issue down to its true essence.

“This isn’t about transgender athletes, although that’s certainly who they’re targeting, but it’s about the rule of law,” Crozier said. “And an executive order — his executive order trying to ban transgender children from participating in sports alongside their peers — it can’t supersede Title IX, the federal law. It doesn’t supersede the state law in Maine or the U.S. Constitution.”

All of these executive orders are happening during a time when a recent Gallup poll showed that nearly 1 in 10 American adults are now identifying as LGBTQ+ and as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent becomes the highest-ranking LGBTQ government official in U.S. history.

Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth, said Bessent’s appointment in the Trump administration goes against her core belief of lifting others up and elevating the most marginalized and less privileged voices.

“It’s always painful for me when I see folks who have moved forward or been promoted or taken a step up, and then they are doing utterly nothing to help anyone else coming behind, that they’re remaining silent in the face of direct and relentless attacks on the larger LGBTQ community,” Stowell said. “So it’s hard to celebrate that one person achieved something that is still denied to the great majority of folks within that community, and someone who not only is doing nothing to help but, through their silence, are actively hindering.”

Guests

  • Janson Wu, senior director of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project
  • Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of BAGLY , the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth
  • Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLAD Law, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders

Stories discussed in this week’s roundtable: