Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she is working at the national level to support sex changes for transgender children.
Pelosi toured the San Francisco VA Medical Center earlier in the day to review health system upgrades, research initiatives, and — according to a press release from her staff — the threat that House Republicans might cut core veterans’ services, Fox News reported.
While speaking with reporters, she was asked how her office was responding to pauses in “gender-affirming care” in California. Her answer was halting.
“Well, that is something I’m– I’m working for at the national level,” Pelosi said, sidestepping the debate in California’s Democratic legislature over how to respond to the state’s largest healthcare provider.
“And we have, um – how can I say it – are hoping that we can… have gender-affirming care, uh, for our… our trans kids,” she said.
“I’m not totally, um — I don’t know what, um,” she added. “I don’t know what effect we can have nationally with what we have going on in the White House and in the Congress.”
“Outside our door, we have a trans flag. Outside of our door in the, um, Capitol, um, in the- in… the office, as do some of our colleagues.”
She acknowledged many Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose medical transition for transgender youth but said she is not alone in her stance.
Earlier this month, more than a dozen officials from Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from blocking access to sex change procedures and treatments for people under 19.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, argues the administration wants to impose a nationwide ban by threatening providers with “baseless criminal charges” and investigations.
The complaint names President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the Justice Department as defendants. It challenges Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order barring government support for sex change operations and treatments and two memos from Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate.
Bondi’s memo directs the DOJ to investigate and prosecute those who offer sex change treatments to minors.
In July, Kaiser Permanente announced it would pause sex change surgeries for patients under 19 beginning Aug. 29 in response to the administration’s actions. The same month, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles closed its Center for Trans Youth Health and Development, one of the nation’s largest clinics for transgender youth.
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., also announced it will no longer provide gender transition-related medical interventions for minors.
Many states have laws restricting or banning sex change surgeries for children. The states named in the lawsuit — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin — allow such procedures.
Progressives are increasingly grappling with whether to cut transgender advocates loose from their policy priorities as polls show Democrats bogged down by public perception that some of their most fervent LGBT positions are extreme.
Two in three Americans say athletes should compete based on the genders they were assigned at birth, according to Pew Research, while 56% support banning medical care related to gender transitions for minors.
The Trump campaign was credited last year with one of the most effective political attack ads in history when it contrasted Kamala Harris’s far-left positions on transgender care — including taxpayer-funded surgeries for felons — with his message of supporting everyday Americans.
“Harris is for They/Them. Trump is for you,” the ad concluded.
Earlier this year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed unease about his daughters playing sports alongside biological boys — even though critics noted he had previously signed expanded protections for transgender athletes into law.
“I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said in March on his podcast. “I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”