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Families of transgender children on Tuesday asked a federal court to block President Donald Trump‘s order to end all federal funding or support for healthcare that aids gender transitions for people younger than 19. In a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration in Maryland federal court, the families, who are represented by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union, allege that the order discriminates against transgender people and goes beyond Trump’s authority as president. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As a result of the order, the lawsuit said, hospitals across the country have already begun canceling appointments for gender transition treatments. The plaintiffs say their appointments were canceled in recent days by Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., NYU Langone in New York, Boston Children’s Hospital and Childrens Hospital of Richmond in Virginia. The hospitals are not defendants in the case. Trump, a Republican, said in the Jan. 28 order that it is “the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.” Details about how far the order will reach and how it will be enforced were not immediately clear. It directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” That could include imposing conditions on healthcare providers receiving any federal funds, which virtually all hospitals do. The lawsuit called the order “part of a broad and sweeping attack President Trump has launched against ‘gender ideology’ and transgender people.” It followed a previous executive order by Trump banning transgender people from the military, and another stating that the government will not recognize gender identity apart from “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.” The order on the military has already been challenged by transgender rights groups. The other has been challenged in two separate lawsuits by transgender women incarcerated in federal prisons who face transfer to men’s prisons, one of whom has won a temporary restraining order blocking her transfer. Treatments covered by the order include puberty blockers, hormones and surgery provided to patients under 19 for the purpose of gender transition. Such treatments are often known as gender-affirming care. Republicans in more than half of the 50 states have passed laws or policies that ban gender-affirming care for minors, some of which have been blocked or overturned by the courts. A challenge to Tennessee’s ban has been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to issue a ruling that could determine the legality of such bans nationwide. The administration of former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, supported access to puberty blockers and hormones, though not surgery, for transgender minors. It passed a rule banning discrimination against transgender people in healthcare, which was blocked by a judge last year. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that gender-affirming care is proven to prevent suicide and improve mental health. Health organizations in some other countries have been more guarded, with the European Academy of Paediatrics calling for more research and a government-sponsored review in England concluding that the existing evidence around youth gender care is weak. Brendan Pierson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
A medical advocacy group on Tuesday sued the main U.S. health agencies over the sudden removal of websites containing public health information in response to an executive order by President Donald Trump targeting what his administration deemed to be “gender ideology extremism.” Doctors for America said in the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., federal court, that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed “numerous” longstanding websites since the order. Those include a page on behavioral health risks among youth, which the lawsuit says is important for understanding health challenges faced by young people, including bullying and vaping; pages with data on the prevalence of HIV and associated risky behaviors; and a page on getting tested for HIV, which the lawsuit called “an important communication tool for physicians.” The liberal-leaning group also said in its lawsuit that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has removed pages recommending the inclusion of more women and underrepresented groups in clinical trials. “The removal of this information deprives researchers of access to information that is necessary for treating patients, for developing clinical studies that produce results that accurately reflect the effects treatments will have in clinical practice, and for developing practices and policies that protect the health of vulnerable populations and the country as a whole,” the lawsuit said. Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order on his first day back in office that the United States will recognize two sexes, male and female. On Jan. 29, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum instructing agencies to take down any public-facing materials that promote what they deem to be “gender ideology.” Tuesday’s lawsuit names the CDC, FDA, and their parent agency the Department of Health and Human Services as defendants. It asks the court to rule that OPM’s memorandum exceeded the agency’s authority and to order the websites to be put back online. HHS and the CDC declined to comment. The FDA and OPM did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Doctors for America was cofounded in 2008 by Vivek Murthy, who served as U.S. Surgeon General under Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden; Mandy Cohen, who served as CDC director under Biden; and Alice Chen, now a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles medical school. Brendan Pierson, Reuters
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E-Commerce
In the run-up to this weekend’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, fans couldn’t be more excited to see the Philadelphia Eagles face off against the Kansas City Chiefs, as the latter attempts to make Super Bowl history as the first team to win the championship three times in a row. With advertising prices hitting all-time highs, and an exciting halftime show featuring recent Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar scheduled, why are ticket sales plummeting? That’s right: Ticket prices for Super Bowl LIX are down 30% over this past week, or around 50% cheaper than last year. Currently, the cheapest seats are selling for somewhere between $3,057 to $4,300 before taxes on the secondary market, compared to a year ago, when they were selling for $9,365 on the secondary market. Here are the current ticket prices as of Monday night, according to USA Today: StubHub: $3,057 ($4,130 with fees) TickPick: $4,300 all-in SeatGeek: $3,414 ($4,620 with fees) Gametime: $3,374 ($4,527 with fees) Ticketmaster: $3,330 ($4,001 with fees) TicketSmarter: $3,613 ($4,697 with fees) Vivid Seats: $3,228 ($4,454 with fees) There are a few possible reasons for the low ticket sales. For one, New Orleans may not have the same pull for fans who wanted to party in Las Vegas last year when the Chiefs faced the San Francisco 49ers. Another reason is that New Orleans’s Caesars Superdome stadium has a lot more seats (74,000) than Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium (65,000), making last year’s seats harder to come by, and a result, more pricey (call it simple supply and demand). Finally, New Orleans is still reeling from last month’s terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured at least 35, when a man plowed his pickup truck into a crowd and opened fire. In response, local officials have created an enhanced security zone along Bourbon Street, and are shutting down and limiting traffic on roads near the stadium and cordoning off the area surrounding the Superdome. And according to NFL chief security officer Cathy Lanier, thousands of state, federal, and local law enforcement officers will be on the ground during the Super Bowl, the Associated Press reported.
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E-Commerce
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