Wyoming Joins 25 States Defending Ban On Youth Sex Change

On Monday, 24 other Republican attorneys general, including Wyoming's, backed President Donald Trump's executive order to halt federal funding for sex change procedures on minors.

Massachusetts filed a counter-brief for 19 states challenging the same executive order.

The counter-suit claims that President Trump's order is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and violates the Spending Clause by tying federal health funds to ideological conditions.

Attorneys general defending Trump's order urged the courts to overturn preliminary injunctions issued earlier this year in lawsuits out of Washington and Maryland.

The brief argues that funding such procedures violates both medical ethics and constitutional principles.

"Even though President Trump is in office, common sense and constitutional principles are under constant assault by radical leftist groups like the ACLU," wrote Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall.

Marshall accused the ACLU of pushing courts to "force taxpayers to fund sex-change procedures on children."

The argument is that such procedures should be handled with private money and not at the expense of the taxpayers. These are cosmetic changes that are not necessary to the health and survival of the person.

Alabama argues that "gender-affirming" care is based on "discredited standards" and that such medical interventions for minors have irreversible consequences.

"The evidence says otherwise," Marshall said. "These harmful interventions have lasting consequences for vulnerable children."

States' attorneys general involved in the case include Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, and Louisiana.