California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Condemns Proposed Federal Rules Aiming to Limit Life-Saving Health Care for Transgender Youth Across America
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2025 Contacts:
Jacob Fraker | [email protected]
Natalia Garcia | [email protected]
California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Condemns Proposed Federal Rules Aiming to Limit Life-Saving Health Care for Transgender Youth Across America
SACRAMENTO, CA — The California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus issued the following statement after the release of two long-awaited proposed rules by the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that aim to limit life-saving, medically necessary health care for transgender youth across the nation:
“In yet another willfully cruel and inhumane move, this federal administration escalates its campaign to hurt transgender Americans by putting forth two proposed rules that strip parents of their rights and ability to care for their children as they see fit. Ignoring a wealth of evidence, scientific research, and medical consensus, these reckless rules will only place children at greater risk of harm.
President Trump should not be making private health care decisions for parents and their children. Those intimate and personal decisions should be only made between the parent, their child, and their doctor. We condemn in the strongest terms possible this attempt to remove the ability for parents to make the right choice for their children as they see fit.
Taken together, these proposed rules would bar the use of federal Medicaid funds for health care for transgender youth under age 18 and penalize hospitals that provide such care by threatening their Medicare and Medicaid funding.
These proposed rules will hold healthcare institutions hostage and put them in an impossible position: to uphold their ethical obligations and comply with California law by providing medically necessary health care, or to lose federal Medicare and Medicaid funds they rely on to serve entire communities.
It should be appalling to all Americans that President Trump is willing to risk the health care of millions of Americans in his effort to harm and erase the smallest and most vulnerable groups of young people.
Transgender youth deserve the same opportunity to be themselves as any other child. They deserve the ability to shape their future in a way that makes them feel affirmed and safe. They deserve to receive the utmost health and well-being as their non-transgender peers. These overtly discriminatory proposed rules take away not only access to health care, but access to that future as well.
This Caucus will not stand idly by as the Trump Administration targets children and sidelines parents. To be clear – even if these rules were to go into effect, health care for transgender individuals would remain legal and protected here in California. And rest assured, the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus will do everything in its power to keep it that way.
As a reminder to all healthcare providers in California: health care for transgender youth is legal, medically necessary, and supported by every major U.S. medical association. We urge hospitals and clinics to continue prioritizing high-quality patient care and well-being, and to resist political intimidation or threats from Donald Trump.
To our resilient parents and incredibly brave transgender youth: We have your back! This Caucus will do everything in its power to fight back against these proposed rules and continue working to make sure California is a place you feel proud to call home. We will be working with community partners, our legislative colleagues, and Governor Newsom to challenge these rules and anything else this administration throws our way.”
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About the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus
California’s Legislative LGBTQ Caucus was formed in 2002 to create a forum for California Legislators to discuss issues that affect LGBTQ Californians and to further the goal of equality and justice for all Californians. California became the first state in the United States to officially form a caucus of openly-LGBTQ state legislators and continues to be a leader of progress for all Americans. In 2023, our membership hit a new milestone of 12 members, becoming one of the largest LGBTQ Caucus in the Nation, and continues to remain strong. Despite tremendous progress and an unprecedented swell of support for the LGBTQ community worldwide, there is still much work to do to protect and uplift the most vulnerable in our community. The LGBTQ Caucus strives to advocate for diversity and inclusion of all people, including differently abled bodies. Our Caucus is working diligently to support LGBTQ leaders that represent our community at the local, state, and federal levels.
For more information on the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, please visit https://lgbtqcaucus.legislature.ca.gov/
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