Nancy Pelosi says she’s working to restore gender-affirming care for trans kids

Former House SpeakerNancy Pelosihas explained that she’s working on a “national level” to restore gender-affirming care for trans youth, which has been limited or banned across several US states.

While visiting a medical centre in San Francisco on Thursday (7 August), the 85-year-old politician explained that the situation facing trans youth in the US is “really sad”, adding that she flies the transgender flag outside of her office.

“That is something I’m working for at the national level, and we are hoping we can have gender-affirming care for our trans kids,” Nancy Pelosi told reporters when asked about gender-affirming care in California.

“It’s a sad thing for us… I don’t know what effect we can have nationally with what we have going on in the White House and in Congress.”

Representative Pelosi, the first woman to be elected as Speaker, has long been an LGBTQ+ ally, claiming she “lost friends” because of her support for queer people at the height of the HIV/Aids pandemic, and recently calling anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans “losers”.

Is gender-affirming care banned in the US?

Nancy Pelosi’s comments defending gender-affirming care for trans and non-binary youth come at a time when it is being widely attacked across the country.

While gender-affirming care is not explicitly banned in every state in the US, LGBTQ+ charity Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reported in June that 27 of America’s 50 states had passed bans, though in Arkansas and Montana the bans are currently being blocked or held.

The charity explained that as of July 2025, 40.1% of trans youth aged 13 to 17 in the US, or 120,400 young people, are living in states that have passed bans on gender-affirming care. In addition, HRC stated that several states prohibit public funds from being used to provide transgender health care, so even adults who are legally permitted to obtain gender-affirming care may not be able to afford it.

President Donald Trump has also attempted to push these attacks further to a federal level, in January signing an executive order that would threaten federal funding for any medical institution providing gender-affirming care to trans youth. The order is currently being blocked.

“US officials have cut off transgender youth from essential, life-affirming care, throwing them instead into the crosshairs of a cultural war,” Yasemin Smallens, LGBT Rights Officer at Human Rights Watch, said. “Families are being pushed to the brink, forced to navigate impossible barriers to care, while the federal government intensifies its assault on transgender rights.”

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