Trump’s Health Department Declares “Men Are Men” Policy

Under new guidelines from the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced a “men are men” policy. In a memo that reads more like a policy paper, health providers are ordered to “direct any people with gender dysphoria into appropriate therapy.” This comes as the Trump administration has introduced a bill that will ban gender-affirming care for minors nationwide.

The bill and memo both faced swift backlash. The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have both come out against the bill: “There is no basis for denying care.” A spokesperson for the Paperclip Movement — a group that has been organizing resistance against what they call “anti-constitutional” Trump policies — says it has already organized dozens of hospitals in several states to refuse to abide by these rules.

The bill appears unlikely to pass in Congress. But it comes as Republican states have restricted trans rights. Ten states have introduced new legislation to curtail access to gender-affirming care for minors. Since Trump’s first year in office, five states have passed other bills targeting the trans community’s participation in school sports that aligns with their gender identity and restricting books and sex education materials that affirm trans identities.

Trans-led mutual aid networks have popped up across the country to replace these materials and, in some cases, even secretly smuggle them back into schools. One spokesperson said, “They can try to ban us. They can try to get rid of our health care. They can try to deny us housing, credit, and public accommodations. They can try to shame us. They can try all they want to erase us, but at some point, they will realize the trans community is never going away.”