State AGs Defend Trans Americans in Stunning Rebuke to Trump’s FTC
Eighteen state Attorneys General unite to stand up in defense of trans Americans, in opposition to a Federal Trade Commission investigation into trans healthcare.
by Valorie Van-Dieman
Eighteen attorneys general, led by Kwame Raoul of Illinois, delivered a sharp rebuke to an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to enter the highly politicized arena of gender-affirming healthcare, submitting a lengthy letter of comment to the FTC on Friday.
On July 9th, at a Federal Trade Commission workshop, the Department of Justice announced that it would be investigating gender affirming care providers across the U.S.. Two weeks later, the FTC put out a Request for Public Comment asking “how consumers may have been exposed to false or unsupported claims about ‘gender-affirming care’” From that date, the public had 60 days to submit comments to the FTC about the investigation.
The attorneys general’s letter, submitted on the day of the deadline, September 26th, laid out, in no uncertain terms, their opposition to the FTC’s investigation, and their support for medically necessary trans healthcare.
This unambiguous, unified defense of gender affirming care is critical, especially as states and providers continue to capitulate to the will of the Trump regime in its attacks on trans people’s rights and freedoms.
Throughout, the letter cites the overwhelmingly positive results and low regret rates of gender affirming care, especially when compared with other common procedures. In discussing this, they pull numerous examples of the positive impacts of gender affirming care, especially for trans youth.
Conversely, when they discuss detransition, they call special attention to the fact that in most cases it is “in response to negative societal attitudes toward transgender individuals, lack of familial support, and, more recently, intimidation due to threats exhibited by the Trump Administration.” They specifically note a Dutch study of 43 years of clinical records which showed that, of 175 patients, only 12 detransitioned; and, of that, only two expressed feelings of regret.
Moving beyond just discussions of efficacy, the letter goes on to deride the very basis of the FTC’s argument, that gender affirming care providers have been engaging in “unfair or deceptive practices.” They point out that all medical procedures carry some level of risk of regret.
In the following pages, the letter notes the lack of credibility in nearly all of the FTC’s sources; primarily news articles. They also specifically call out the FTC’s main citation: the Cass Review, a debunked review of gender services in England; noting a “lack of methodological rigor and subject matter competency.”
The letter further argues that, even if there was evidence that gender affirming care was harmful to the trans people that receive it, the FTC lacks jurisdiction and authority over the broad application of a medical treatment.
The attorneys general argue that the legality of medical treatments traditionally falls under the authority of individual states, not federal agencies. Notably, this argument uses the very same logic that was used by the right wing for U.S. vs Skrmetti.
This letter marks a turning point, the largest and most full-throated condemnation of anti-trans propaganda and pseudoscience by blue states that we have seen since the second Trump presidency.
The Trump administration’s approach to science has been widely criticized as departing from evidence based practices to embrace conspiracy theories and ideologically-driven outcomes. Under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. everything from abortion care to vaccines and even the use of Tylenol has been upended and divorced from responsible, mainstream scientific approaches. Allowing the FTC to regulate medical treatments in this way would represent a new precedent for federal interference in medical treatments and procedures.
Valorie Van-Dieman (she/they) is an Associate Editor at Assigned Media. @valorievandieman.bsky.social
