Citing what they consider crushing financial burdens, multiple military families have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense to restore coverage for their children’s post-transition treatments, which had been provided free of charge under the Biden administration.

Three families have sued the U.S. Department of Defense, demanding the reinstatement of care that their transgender children received after gender-transition surgeries during the Biden administration. The families argue that they now face “significant” and “overwhelming expenses” for their children’s treatments following the termination of government funding.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which leads the campaign against restrictions on transgender health care in the military, estimated in an analysis that around 2,500 minors receive treatment for gender dysphoria through the Tricare program of the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System, with about 900 of them taking puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones. Tricare provides civilian health benefits for military personnel, military retirees, and their dependents.

In the lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DOD), service members with transgender children claim that Tricare’s abrupt refusal to cover medically necessary care has caused serious harm, leaving their families facing crushing out-of-pocket costs.

“This is not a political shift – it is the immediate and devastating disruption of essential health care that affects the physical and psychological well-being of the plaintiffs and other young people nationwide,”

the complaint reads, which was filed this month on behalf of the families by two LGBTQ advocacy groups, according to Juidical Watch .

NEW: Although the Defense Authorization Act signed by former President Biden blocks the U.S. Military’s healthcare system from providing specialized treatments to the transgender children of service members, three families are suing the DOD to reinstate the benefit, claiming they… pic.twitter.com/JF6i0VV6pi

— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) September 12, 2025

The first two families were receiving hormone treatments prescribed at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, but their doctors recently informed them that Tricare would no longer cover the care. The third plaintiff is listed as a young adult who had been prescribed testosterone at an unnamed health facility, previously covered by Tricare.

Without Tricare’s coverage, the testosterone prescription is “too expensive to pay for out of pocket,” the family’s complaint states, adding that “the process has caused unnecessary stress and panic.”

For nearly a decade, service members and their families have been able to access puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormone therapy for their transgender children through military insurance, one LGBTQ group involved in the lawsuit said in a statement, blaming President Trump for ordering the Defense Department to terminate this „essential coverage”.

“As a result of Trump administration policies, families’ trusted doctors cannot provide continuous care, and families are unfairly forced to shoulder this financial burden,” the advocacy group claimed.

Until recently, Tricare covered hormone therapy and psychological counseling for treating gender dysphoria, which it defines as „the psychological distress caused by the mismatch between assigned sex at birth and gender identity”. Before Trump’s second presidency, Tricare allowed active-duty service members to request waivers for “medically necessary gender-affirming surgeries,” though these costly procedures were often denied. Two service members who identified as women sued the DOD, claiming the policy discriminated based on sex and transgender status.

Less than a year ago, a federal judge appointed by President Obama ruled in their favor, finding that the military’s health insurance plan was discriminatory and violated the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by refusing to cover gender-transition surgeries. The judge compared such procedures to mastectomies and hysterectomies (breast and uterus removal) performed as part of cancer treatment.