WASHINGTON – Last night, the Biden administration offered a deeply troubling and harmful statement on how some gender affirming care should be reserved for adults, which is out of step with the overwhelming majority of medical experts and places the government where it doesn't belong. In response, HRC President Kelley Robinson issued the following statement:

“Health care decisions for young people belong between a patient, their family, and their health care provider. Trans youth are no exception.

The Biden administration is flat wrong on this. It’s wrong on the science and wrong on the substance. It’s also inconsistent with other steps the administration has taken to support transgender youth. The Biden administration, and every elected official, need to leave these decisions to families, doctors and patients–where they belong. Although transgender young people make up an extremely small percentage of youth in this country, the care they receive is based on decades of clinical research and is backed by every major medical association in the U.S. representing over 1.3 million doctors. The administration has committed to fight any ban on healthcare for transgender youth and must continue this without hesitation–the entire community is watching.

No parent should ever be put in the position where they and their doctor agree on one course of action, supported by the overwhelming majority of medical experts, but the government forbids it.”

While the administration later updated their statement to express that it continues to support “gender-affirming care for minors, which represents a continuum of care, and respect the role of parents, families, and doctors in these decisions,” the administration must do more, and be clear that they oppose all bans on medically-necessary, evidence-based health care for transgender youth.