NYC Mayor Adams' order shields gender-affirming treatment

An executive order shielding patients, providers and helpers who obtain gender medicine such as puberty blockers, hormones or surgery was signed Monday by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. He called it "essential to the health and wellness of many transgender and non-binary people."

The order covers everyone, not just New Yorkers, including anyone who helps those seeking or providing treatment.

His order, titled “Prohibiting Use of City Resources to Assist Jurisdictions Seeking to Enforce Prohibitions on Gender-Affirming Care,” takes effect immediately.

The term “gender-affirming care” refers to treatments, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other medical procedures such as the surgical removal, or construction, of breasts and genitalia.

Adams’ order means that no city agency is allowed to expend resources, including property or time, to help detain someone who seeks gender medicine in or outside New York. Cooperation with such jurisdictions is also prohibited.

For example, if a person goes to New York to seek a procedure, the city wouldn’t cooperate if the person’s home state sought to investigate the case.

Asked whether the order covers youth, such as runaways, Adams spokesman Bradley Weekes wrote in an email: “The EO is not age restrictive.”

According to Adams’ order, “at least 20 states have enacted legislation restricting gender-affirming care for minors, and at least 34 states have introduced legislation to restrict or prohibit access to gender-affirming care.”

One of those states is Florida, where last month Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning transgender treatment for minors and makes gender medicine more difficult to obtain for adults.

“This will permanently outlaw the mutilation of minors,” DeSantis said in Tampa at a bill-signing ceremony, according to Reuters.

The Florida law also requires adults who want to access certain types of gender medicine to obtain consent from oversight boards. A federal judge has temporarily blocked parts of the law.

Reuters reported that many Republican supporters of such legislation distrust what most American medical groups say in endorsing gender medicine, which "in some cases considers it life-saving."

"Instead, opponents of transgender healthcare claim it is dangerous and experimental, with some labeling the measures as chemical castration or child abuse," Reuters reported.

New York City joins certain jurisdictions around the country that have taken legal steps to shield those who seek out, provide, facilitate or obtain such medicine.

Among them are Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and New Mexico, according to National Public Radio. Those jurisdictions endorse the view of most American medical groups.

Several European countries such as Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom have recently taken a less favorable stance toward access for youth to certain treatments, as a result of what they say is evidence review.

On Friday, for example, England limited the use of puberty blockers in children, according to The New York Times. From now on, the blockers will be allowed for children enrolled in clinical trials only.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.