Washington sues to stop ban on funding for gender-affirming care
Roughly 100 trans youth provided testimony attached to the suit, in which three doctors and two other states are joining Attorney General Nick Brown as plaintiffs.
by John Stang
February 7, 2025
When 19-year-old University of Washington drama student Luna Crone-Baron learned on Jan. 28 that President Trump had signed an executive order that would stop federal funding for gender-affirming care for youth, she said: “It was devastating.”
As a young child, Crone-Baron, who was assigned male at birth, felt different. Isolated. Disconnected from other kids. Being male felt untruthful. Crone-Baron believed death was better than going through male puberty.
“This feeling of isolation led me to living with great sadness as a child. I felt frightened and suffocated by the idea I would not be able to grow up and live as a woman. I felt that I would rather die than go through puberty and grow into an adult man. These were very heavy thoughts and feelings for a child under 10 years old to be feeling, and hugely damaged my ability to lead a happy, carefree childhood,” she wrote in one of roughly 100 declarations — essentially individual written testimonials — attached to a Washington state lawsuit filed Friday to stop Trump’s executive order to end federal funding of gender-affirming health care for people under 19.
“This order will kill transgender children if it is not stopped,” she said at a Friday press conference in Seattle where Washington Attorney General Nick Brown announced the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Other plaintiffs are Oregon, Minnesota and three doctors who treat trans children. The doctors fear their patients and themselves could face physical retaliation, Brown said.
Crone-Baron started comprehending the concept of being transgender when she was 10. She went on a puberty blocker at 11. She began hormone replacement therapy at 12.
“With my family’s overwhelming love and support, I felt a huge sense of freedom and of a weight lifted off my shoulders. Despite facing huge amounts of transphobic harassment at school, I never felt so hopeful about my life and future,” she wrote in her declaration.
Crone-Baron told reporters that she could not understand why Trump and his allies would deny these treatments to others facing the same dilemmas.
At the press conference, Brown said: “The president’s order is gross. It’s disgusting. It’s hateful. … This one has special resonance because of the hate behind it. … There is no doubt that transgender youth will die.”
Trump’s executive order mandated that federal funding be denied to hospitals and clinics that practiced gender-affirming care for people under 19. The Seattle Times reported that Seattle Children’s Hospital stopped providing gender-affirming care because of the executive order. UW Medicine, part of the University of Washington, which also provides gender-affirming care, has received more than $500 million in federal funding, the lawsuit said.
“The Order purports to ‘protect’ youth, but the Order harms them. The Order has already, and will continue, to limit physicians’ ability to treat patients’ gender dysphoria, as well as the unavoidable, grave harm to the health and wellbeing of transgender youth if they are prohibited from receiving necessary medical care, including debilitating anxiety, severe depression, self-harm, and suicide that can accompany untreated dysphoria,” the lawsuit said.
Brown said Washington’s lawsuit is based on three legal and constitutional points. He said Trump’s executive order violates the Fifth Amendment in that it targets people for discrimination. The lawsuit argues the president cannot unilaterally regulate or criminalize medical practices in Washington state, which are protected by the 10th Amendment. And Trump is interfering with congressional appropriations, which violates the concept of the separation of powers between the president and Congress.
Washington’s Attorney General’s Office expects to request a temporary restraining order on the ban in the next few days.
This lawsuit follows one filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Maryland by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups on behalf of two 12-year-olds and five teenagers.
Brown said his office is reviewing every Trump executive order for legal and constitutional violations, including a Trump ban on transgender girls and women participating in women’s sports. Brown has said several times that his own personal feelings on political issues don’t enter those reviews, which are focused on potential constitutional violations that affect people in Washington. Brown’s office has already filed lawsuits in federal court to challenge Trump executive orders to eliminate birthright citizenship and to freeze federal funds to all states.
Other elected officials also pushed back against Trump’s orders and other attempts to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal says his office is consulting with the Attorney General’s Office regarding sports. “One thing is clear: The 47th President of the United States is disregarding the rule of law by attempting to unilaterally impose an attack on the specific student groups that anti-discrimination laws aim to protect,” Reykdal said in a written statement.
In the state Legislature, Washington House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said at the Democrats’ weekly press conference that Trump’s anti-transgender executive orders have shaken transgender people in this state. Both legislators are gay, and Pedersen’s district includes Capitol Hill, the U District, Wallingford and Fremont in Seattle — making it one of the most LGBTQ+-populated districts in the state.
They both noted that House Bill 1038, introduced by Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen, R-Puyallup, would prohibit the use of puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones or surgery for trans youth under 18. Both acknowledged the bill does not stand a chance in the two legislative chambers controlled by Democrats, but the existence of the bill has worried parents and other constituents.
“The number of calls I get are extraordinary, and people are petrified for their kids and themselves,” Jinkins said.
Pedersen said his office has received at least 500 calls over HB 1038. “This atmosphere of persecution and fear from the Trump administration — I’ve got kids and parents who are worried sick,” he said.