Transgender teens across Connecticut are living in limbo after President Donald Trump banned gender-affirming care for anyone under 19 years old.

The Trump administration insists that kids are too young to make life-altering gender decisions.

But a local counselor who works with trans youth believes, if the order stands, their lives could be on the line.

Cameron Celotto was born a girl. But by age 12, something felt wrong.

“I was like, ‘Ah, this is a phase. It’ll pass,” he said. “And it didn’t.”

Celotto’s mother watched her child fall into depression.

“He came right out and he just said those words to me of, ‘I’m in the wrong body,’” Sarah Celotto said.

That was four years ago. The day before he turned 15, Cameron began taking male hormones – and later, underwent surgery to remove female breasts.

It was not a quick or easy decision.

“It is not something where you walk into a doctor’s office and walk out with hormone therapy. It doesn’t happen like that,” his mother said. “Cameron had a slew of doctors that he had been speaking to – psychiatrists and therapists.”

Now, Cameron’s testosterone treatments could be at risk after an executive order entitled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” the order states. “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has vowed to fight Trump’s order.

“I’m going to push back on any attempts to cut funding that provides health care to anybody, including people who are trans and are receiving treatment,” he said. “We were one of the first states in the union to stand up and say we love and we care for and we protect everybody, including our trans kids.”

Other orders also ban transgender athletes in schools and military troops.

This week, the Pentagon gave each military branch 30 days to identify and remove thousands of trans service members. Six active-duty troops are challenging the order in court.

Tony Ferraiolo transitioned two decades ago. Now he works with transgender youth at Health Care Advocates International in Stratford.

They are nervous and scared.

“I think if the executive order goes through, that children will kill themselves,” he said. “Because they’re not going to be able to see a future.”

Ferraiolo said it’s not a decision young people make lightly.

“There’s the doctors. There’s the therapists,” he said “There’s the parents.”

For now, judges have put the president's gender care orders on hold, but many Connecticut hospitals are still taking a wait-and-see approach.

That leaves patients in limbo.

“It’s very scary because I can’t imagine not being, after fighting so long to even come to terms with who I am, to then be denied,” Cameron said. “I can’t understand how someone is fueled with so much hate toward youth.”

Celloto’s treatment may be safe because his clinic does not accept federal funding. But his mother worries about the future.

“Cameron needs testosterone for the rest of his life, and I worry that the starting of 19 is just the beginning of where this administration may want to go,” she said. “Cameron fought – we fought – to get here. I fought to have my child want to survive to see the age of 16.”

On Friday, Connecticut lawmakers advanced an amendment to the state constitution that would ban transgender discrimination and guarantee the right to an abortion.

The measure now moves to the full state Senate, but the earliest voters could see the question on the ballot is Nov. 2026.