Texas and Queensland face backlash on trans healthcare

Op-Ed by Fiona Buchanan

The Queensland Government in Australia has announced a halt to health care for transgender young people, mirroring President Trump’s recent slew of Executive Orders. The announcement has a chilling effect on the LGBTQIA+ community, with the President’s words offering a license to discriminate and put a target on a minority community on the other side of the world. Trans people face distinct health and well-being challenges due to the constant politicization of their rights, and the same community in Texas has become accustomed to the government constraining their civil rights. The LGBTQIA+ community in the United States has witnessed a series of egregious attacks on their fundamental rights and freedoms, and the same community in Australia is now facing similar challenges.

When the Queensland Government in Australia announced last month that it would halt health care for transgender young people, the parallels with President Trump’s recent slew of Executive Orders were stark. 

Within the first week of the Trump presidency, the LGBTQIA+ community in the United States has witnessed a series of egregious attacks on our fundamental rights and freedoms. From attempts to limit the definition of gender to male and female, threats to discharge trans people from the military, and a proposed ban on health care for trans kids federally, the whiplash facing the LGBTQIA+ community seems to reach new levels.

While many of the President’s announcements will be challenged in courts and Congress, they have an immediate chilling effect and far-reaching impact beyond the bounds of the United States. Queensland’s announcement last month demonstrates just that. While Australia continues to protect many fundamental rights and freedoms of its LGBTQIA+ communities, and advocates condemned the news, the rhetoric and actions of the US embolden domestic anti-trans actors. The President’s words offer a license to discriminate and put a target on a minority community on the other side of the world.   

Trans people face distinct health and well-being challenges, due in large part to the constant politicization of their rights—attacks on trans people formed a centerpiece of President Trump’s 2024 election campaign. A 2024 US study by the Trevor Project found that the overwhelming majority (90%) of LGBTQIA+ young people said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics. The same study found that 46% of transgender and nonbinary young people had considered attempting suicide in the past year. 

None of the announcements by President Trump are news to LGBTQIA+ Texans, who have become accustomed to the government constraining their civil rights. In 2023, the 88th Texas Legislature banned health care for transgender youth in the state. As Texas politics heats up for the 89th Legislature, LGBTIQA+ communities are primed to fight more damaging bills. Texas now ranks amongst the top ten US states from where transgender people and their families are fleeing, demonstrating the impact of harmful and discriminatory laws and public debate. This represents a significant loss to the Texas community and an indictment on the state’s lack of commitment to freedom and equality.

Trans Texans saw first-hand the chilling effect of executive orders in 2022 when Governor Greg Abbott attempted to classify health care for trans youth as child abuse, ordering child protection officials to investigate reports of trans children receiving this care. This order was eventually overturned by the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled that only the Texas Legislature has the authority to change the definition of child abuse. However, the damage had already been done, with insurance companies withdrawing care for trans youth from their policies and some doctors leaving the state.

Just last month, the US Department of Justice dropped charges against a Texas surgeon who had leaked private medical records of trans children not under his care, who had received care at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Facing up to ten years in prison, Dr Eithan Haim publicly thanked President Trump for the charges being dropped, underscoring the President’s reach in the anti-trans movement.

While the Queensland decision is seen as an outlier in Australia, advocates abroad must remain vigilant to encroaching ideologies that seek to harm the LGBTQIA+ community. Queensland has now implemented an immediate ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatment for transgender minors in the state, pending a review. Queensland’s decision calls back to Texas’ 2023 ban on health care for trans young people and parallel developments in the United Kingdom. These decisions highlight the double standard by which hormone therapy and puberty blockers can continue to be used for non-transgender children, for example, for early onset puberty.  

Politicians’ intrusion into the careful healthcare decisions made by parents, children, and their clinicians contradicts a significant body of medical research. New studies continue to show the same results—when medical teams follow best-practice standards of care, when clinicians, parents, and patients can make informed decisions together, trans people are healthier and have a lower risk of suicide. Trans people who have access to hormone therapy as teens have better mental health. Odds of severe psychological distress were reduced by up to 222%, for trans people who had the benefit of starting hormone therapy as teens. When puberty blockers are part of a trans young person’s health plan, it results in a dramatic decrease in the risk of suicidal ideation. 

Ultimately, we all deserve respect and autonomy when it comes to looking after our health—and trans people are no different. Local groups, such as Equality Texas, the Montrose Center, and the Mahogany Project, need our support to push back against violations of the LBGTQIA+ community’s fundamental human rights. The ongoing threats facing the community require a sustained and united effort from Texas to Queensland.

Fiona Buchanan is the Laurie Eiserloh Fellow with Equality Texas. She has deep policy experience across state and federal governments in Australia, including in LGBTQIA+ affairs, and holds a Master of Science in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Oxford University.