Under President Donald Trump’s second term, Children’s Hospital of the Kings and Daughters, Children’s Hospital of Richmond and University of Virginia Health Children’s Hospital have each closed their gender-affirming care programs to minors. That care remains legal in the state. The hospitals have not said publicly whether the programs will reopen to youth, and some Virginia families and advocates say they have been left in the dark.

Though about half of U.S. states restrict gender affirming care for minors, there are about 133,000 transgender youth in states without bans, including Virginia, that use Medicaid or CHIP coverage for their care, according to KFF Health News. 

“Decisions about healthcare, including for transgender youth, should be made by families and their doctors — not the government,” ACLU attorney Wyatt Rolla said in a phone call Wednesday. “It’s important that every parent is able to get the healthcare that their child needs, no matter what kind of health insurance they have.”

RICHMOND, Va. — Today a new final rule from the Department of Health and Human Services goes into effect cutting off federal Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding for gender dysphoria services for young people: those under 18 in Medicaid and under 19 in CHIP. In a September 24 bulletin, the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) announced the Commonwealth will stop covering these services beginning October 13.

The Loudoun County School Board approved the proclamation in September. It rejects anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and says the month is “an opportunity to celebrate the strength, resilience, and impact of the LGBTQ+ community, whose contributions have enriched the cultural, educational, and civic life of Virginia and the world.”

Griffin claimed the proclamation was recognizing a “transing the kids month” designed to get “as many kids into their transing program as possible.”

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday accused President Donald Trump’s administration of using transgender children as political pawns as a sweeping federal policy threatens to strip Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming medical care from low-income families across the country.

The study, published in the September issue of American Psychologist, the official peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Psychological Association, is a mixed-method examination of the effects of bathroom bans, exclusion from sports, and gender-affirming care restrictions on trans and gender nonconforming people. Researchers established that over tangible 2,000 legislative and policy-based actions have attempted to limit the rights of trans people in recent years.

Prince William County cut the ribbon on the new Occoquan Elementary School this week, celebrating a yearslong effort to create a modern replacement for one of the district’s oldest school