WASHINGTON (BP) — President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday, Jan. 28, stating that “the United States … will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another. …”

The order, called “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” seeks to strip federal funding from medical institutions that provide so-called “gender affirming care” to those 18 and younger. Such treatment typically involves puberty blockers, hormones and even surgical procedures that alter or remove body parts.

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” the order says. “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”

Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) President Brent Leatherwood celebrated the end of “the radical gender madness that has plagued our government.”

“So-called ‘gender transition’ procedures, which were funded and celebrated by the Biden administration, go against God’s design for gender and sexuality and perpetrate permanent, detrimental harms against children, both physically and psychologically,” Leatherwood said in a statement to Baptist Press. “The Trump White House is making a big difference in this area. Congress needs to follow this up by making it a permanent part of the law.

“The protection of children from harmful gender transition surgeries and interventions is not only an entirely appropriate action by the government, it is desperately needed in an era when culture is consumed by the fiction of gender fluidity.”

Leatherwood’s comments echo those of Southern Baptists as a whole, who addressed gender transition treatments in a 2023 resolution.

“The Bible teaches that the differences between men and women are complementary, determined at conception, immutable, rooted in God’s design, and most clearly revealed in bodily differences (Genesis 1:28; Psalm 100:3), not in self-defined and ultimately false notions of ‘gender identity …,’” the resolution says.

And later: “We condemn corporate medical services that promote harmful and often irreversible ‘gender transition’ experiments on vulnerable minors and young adults, exploiting them for the sake of profit. …”

The executive order calls guidance provided by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) “junk science” and orders federal agencies to rescind or amend all policies that rely on WPATH guidance.

It also instructs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review best practices for treating children with gender dysphoria and publish those findings. Trump’s nominee for that cabinet position, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appeared before the Senate for his confirmation hearing today (Jan. 29).

Other directives in the executive order include:

• A change in HHS rules to protect whistleblowers regarding the gender transition of minors
• Exclusion of coverage for gender transition for minors from federal employee health insurance policies
• Prioritization of enforcement of laws against female genital mutilation
• Investigation of entities accused of misleading the public about long-term effects of chemical and surgical mutilation
• Cooperation with Congress to enact a private right of action for children who have been damaged by gender reassignment treatment, including “a lengthy statute of limitations”
• Investigation of states that have stripped custody from parents over gender identity issues

In a post on the Truth Social website on Jan. 28, Trump said it was a “great honor” to sign the order and called the gender reassignment of minors “barbaric medical procedures that should have never been allowed to take place!”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Laura Erlanson is managing editor of Baptist Press.)