Trump administration intensifies policies targeting LGBTQ rights and healthcare

The Trump administration has intensified policies targeting LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender Americans, through executive orders and federal agency actions. A recent executive order, ‘Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government’, sought to declare sex immutable and remove incarcerated transgender women from women’s prisons; however, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking the Bureau of Prisons from transferring 14 transgender women to men’s facilities.

In healthcare, the Department of Justice reached an agreement with the Cleveland Clinic to end gender-affirming care for transgender minors. While the clinic denied liability, it agreed to pay $308,000 to resolve false billing allegations and committed $2 million toward detransition care. Additionally, while the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration intends to reinstate the LGBTQ option on the 988 suicide hotline, concerns have been raised regarding the exclusion of The Trevor Project from the relaunch.

In his new book, ‘Aftershocks: Trump 2.0, Public Health, and Our Better Angels’, Dr. José M. Zuniga examines the impact of these federal policy shifts and budget cuts on public health and the HIV response. Zuniga argues that the administration's actions, influenced by frameworks like Project 2025, have created significant disruption within the public health community.