To the Attention of:

Senator Thune, Speaker of the Senate
Senator Barrasso, Majority Whip
Senator Grassley, Chair Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Senator Schumer, Minority Leader
Senator Durbin, Minority Whip & Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

March 19, 2026

RE: Opposition to the Criminalization of Medically Necessary Healthcare for Trans and Gender-Diverse Adolescents

Dear esteemed Members of the Senate,

The undersigned 167 organizations, which constitute a broad and unified coalition of civil rights, health equity, and gender justice advocates, write to express our unequivocal opposition to the passage of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Protect Children’s Innocence Act. Although this bill purports to “protect children,” it instead persecutes transgender, intersex, gender-diverse youth and their providers, with potentially devastating consequences. If passed, this legislation would expose tens of thousands of transgender and gender diverse youth to immense psychological suffering and increased risk of suicidality. Violation of this extreme bill would result in severe financial penalties and imprisonment of up to ten years—or both—for providers delivering this lifesaving, essential healthcare to transgender and gender diverse patients.

Enacting a law that would endanger the lives of tens of thousands of adolescents, as this bill would, is both unconscionable and unjustifiable. This bill does not protect children. Instead, it polices identities and criminalizes the practice of safe pediatric medicine. We therefore call upon all Senators to oppose this bill’s passage and VOTE NO, for the safety of transgender and intersex youth, for the rights of providers to care for their patients, and the rights of parents to support their children in accessing the care they need.

H.R.3492 is extreme, overreaching, and explicitly discriminatory. This bill distorts Sec. 116 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, which prohibits Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), to criminalize the provision of consensual, safe, and medically necessary transition-related healthcare (also called gender-affirming healthcare) while carving out an exception so that adolescents who are not trans can receive the same treatments. At the same time, this bill endorses the performance of non-consensual and unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants. This bill’s discriminatory objectives are clear: its objective is to enforce conformity with rigid, outdated, and unscientific stereotypes of sex and gender and to dictate providers’ ability to care for their patients based on patients’ alignment with those stereotypes.

This legislation misrepresents the field of medicine that this bill intends to criminalize: pediatric transitionrelated healthcare. This bill uses the same medically inaccurate and fear-mongering terminology found in President Trump’s Executive Order 14167. H.R. 3492 misleads the public about what transition-related care entails, using language that stokes fear rather than reflecting medical reality: that pediatric transition-related healthcare is safe and supported by decades of clinical evidence Make no mistake that, point for point, every claim made within this bill regarding this long-standing and evidence-based field of medicine is refuted by a robust body of evidence, which has been drawn from over four decades of this care’s provision to transgender and gender-diverse adolescents. Countless studies and systematic reviews have concluded that this lifesaving care not only reduces rates of suicidality and depression but also improves life satisfaction and psychosocial functioning amongst transgender and gender-diverse adolescents. These treatments are safe, and they are the same as those provided to adolescents who are not transgender, a purpose for which many of these treatments have received FDA approval.

Healthcare decisions should be made by patients, their families, and trained medical experts, who undergo nearly a decade of education and training to exercise good judgment in supporting patients’ needs. As our elected representatives, it is your responsibility to protect the interests, rights, and well-being of your constituents. They expect you to oppose this discriminatory bill, which does nothing to address the actual needs of people across the country whose health and economic well-being are at risk. We call upon all Senators to honor their duties to their constituents, including tens of thousands of trans youths and their families, by Voting No on this discriminatory bill.

With Respect,

Advocates for Trans Equality
603 Equality
AAUW California
Abortion Forward
Access Reproductive Justice
Advocates for Youth
AFFA Action
AIDS United
AJL Community Health LLC
All* Above All
Alliance For TransYouth Rights
American Atheists
Amnesty International USA
Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum
Association of Latinos/as/xs Motivating Action
Aunt Rita’s Foundation
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network
Basic Rights Oregon
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
CA LGBTQ Health and Human
Services Network
California Nurse-Midwives Association
California Women’s Law Center
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center
Campaign for Southern Equality
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights
CenterLink
Central Coast Coalition for Inclusive Schools
Central Valley NOW
Chosen Family Law Center
Citizen Action/Illinois
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Colorado Consumer Health Initiative
Colorado Trans+Autistic Peer Support Group
Community Catalyst
Concern for Integrated Development
Council for Global Equality
Disability Culture Lab
Disability Rights California
Disability Rights Education and
Defense Fund (DREDF)
Eastern PA Trans Equity Project
EmpowerMT
Equality California
Equality Federation
Equality Florida
Equality Illinois
Equality Michigan Action
Network
Equality Ohio
Equality Maine
Equality Virginia
Fair Wisconsin
Fairness Campaign
Families USA
Family Equality
Female-To-Male International, Inc. (FTMI)
Feminist Majority Foundation
Fluxx Productions
Freedom
Freedom, Inc.
Gender Justice
Gender Justice LA
Gender Liberation Movement
GenderNexus
Georgia Equality
GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD Law)
GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality
Guttmacher Institute
Health Action New Mexico
Ibis Reproductive Health
If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice
Indivisible
Inter African Committee
interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth
IYG (Indiana Youth Group)
Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health
Kentucky Equal Justice Center
Lawyering Project Inc.
Lawyers for Good Government
Legal Action Center
Legal Council for Health Justice
Legal Voice
LGBTQ SAVES
Los Angeles LGBT Center
Lyon-Martin Community Health Services
Make the Road New York
MassEquality
Ministry of lands
Minority Veterans of America
Movement Advancement Project
National Abortion Federation
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
National Center for LGBTQ Rights
National Council of Jewish Women
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
National Health Law Program
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
National LGBTQ+ Bar Association
National LGBTQI+ Cancer Network
National Network of Abortion Funds
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women’s Law Center
National Black Justice Coaltion
Nebraska Appleseed
New Disabled South
NIRH Action Fund
North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ+ Youth (NAGLY)
Northwest Health Law Advocates
Oasis Legal Services
One Colorado
OutFront Minnesota
OutSupport, Inc.
Pennsylvania Youth Congress
People Power United
Peoria Proud
PFLAG Sacramento
PFLAG San Jose/Peninsula
Physicians for Reproductive Health
Point of Pride
Portland Outright
Positive Women’s Network- USA
Pride at Work – Hawai’i
Pride At Work, AFL-CIO
PROMO Missouri
Public Justice Center
Queer Birth Project
Reproductive Freedom for All
Reproductive Justice Action Collective
Rocky Mountain Equality
Sacramento LGBT Community Center
SAGE
Sahiyo U.S. Inc.
Silver State Equality
SiX Action
Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i
The California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network
The Fenway Institute
The Houston Intersex Society
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
The Legal Aid Society (New York City)
The Source LGBT+ Center
The Spectrum Center of Hattiesburg
The TransLatin@ Coalition
The U.S. End FGM/C Network
The Women’s Building
Trans Maryland
Trans Youth Equality Foundation
Transathlete
TransCentralPA
TransFamily Support Services
Transgender Law Center
Transgender Michigan
Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico
Transgender Resource, Advocacy & Network Service
Transhealth
TransOhio
TransVisible Montana
UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
Uniting Pride
URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity
Wanda Alston Foundation
WeSpeakOut
William E. Morris Institute for Justice
Women’s Health Center of Maryland
Women’s Health Center of West Virginia