Maryland governor signs executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has declared the state a sanctuary for gender-affirming health care, signing an executive order this week that protects individuals seeking, receiving or providing care from punishment based on another state’s laws.

Moore’s executive order, signed Tuesday at a Pride month celebration in Annapolis, prevents state agencies from complying with investigations or subpoenas issued by other state governments seeking information about an individual or entity “solely because” they have provided or received gender-affirming treatment in Maryland.

The order similarly protects individuals who have traveled to Maryland to obtain gender-affirming health care, as well as those who have sought out care in the state but have not yet received it. The order’s protections apply to medical professionals, transgender adults seeking care for themselves, and parents or legal guardians seeking care for their minor children.

“In the State of Maryland, nobody should have to justify their own humanity,” Moore said Tuesday in a news release. “This order is focused on ensuring Maryland is a safe place for gender affirming care, especially as other states take misguided and hateful steps to make gender affirming care cause for legal retribution.”

Twenty states have enacted laws or policies that heavily restrict or ban gender-affirming health care, including 17 that have done so this year, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks legislation impacting the LGBTQ community. Most measures target care for transgender minors, but laws passed in states like Florida and Missouri also restrict access to care for some adults.

In five states — Alabama, Oklahoma, Idaho, North Dakota and Florida — providing gender-affirming health care to a minor is a felony crime, punishable by up to a decade in prison.

With Moore’s executive order, Maryland is the latest in a growing number of states to enact a “shield” law protecting access to transgender health care. At least 10 others — Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington and Vermont, as well ass the District of Columbia — have taken similar steps to ensure gender-affirming health care remains legal.