Statement on Biden Administration’s Opposition to Gender-Affirming Surgery for Youth

Last Wednesday, June 26th, the White House told the New York Times that they “opposed gender-affirming surgery for minors.” This statement follows the release of new Title IX regulations that denied the rights of transgender athletes to play on sports teams that align with their gender. Young people have a message for President Biden: allyship is not conditional. 

President Biden, you have made strides for LGBTQ+ Americans. But you cannot claim to be an ally to young queer and trans people then abandon us when you believe it to be politically convenient. Election year or not, we demand a president who will remain steadfast in his advocacy for the safety, autonomy, and dignity of young trans people. We demand a president who will fight for young people’s ability to access the full spectrum of gender-affirming care, including gender-affirming surgery. 

The Department of Justice recently sued Tennessee for their implementation of a ban on gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy, for minors. We are grateful for the White House’s leadership in challenging this attack on trans youth. But young people demand a president who doesn’t just play defense. We need a president who is proactive in his efforts to protect trans youth. We need a president who will correct the historical exclusion of trans folks from the Constitution and publish the Equal Rights Amendment. 

Our lives, futures, and freedoms hang in the balance. With an impending Supreme Court challenge to gender-affirming care, we need an explicit constitutional guarantee of sex equality. In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), Justice Gorsuch decided that discrimination on the basis of gender-identity is sex discrimination. The Equal Rights Amendment, which explicitly prohibits “discrimination on the basis of sex,” will provide us a strong, undeniable tool to defend and expand access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth across the country. 

President Biden, if you are a true ally to transgender youth, you will take executive action to defend and expand the freedoms of transgender youth. That begins with publishing the Equal Rights Amendment.