TAMPA, Fla. — President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order aimed at ending gender-affirming care for anyone under the age of 19.

Trump's order came nearly two years after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that blocked gender-affirming care. That law is currently in effect while a federal appeals court decides if it is constitutional.

A Bay area transgender advocate Ashley Brundage said she understands all too well what it was like growing up as a trans teen.

“I just knew I was different," she said. "We didn’t have the terminology, we didn’t have gender counselors and therapists and resources. "I struggled to survive."

Brundage has spent years as a motivational speaker, author and trans advocate, and most recently ran for public office in District 65 in South Tampa.

She said Trump’s move to block gender-affirming care for those under the age of 19 could be dangerous, and thinks politicians should be focused on more pressing issues, like the cost of insurance, food and gas.

“They need to understand that the trans community is not the villain, no matter how much someone wants to make us out to be the villain,” Brundage said.

Trump's executive order states that the federal government will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support gender affirming care for anyone under 19.

The president wrote: “Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation's history, and it must end.”

Brundage said there is a lot of misinformation about gender-affirming care — which she says most of the time consists of counseling or involves easily reversible puberty blockers. She believes the current political climate will eventually change and encourages trans teens to continue to be themselves.