Ten Connecticut individuals and families are challenging the sudden termination of medical care for transgender adolescents and young adults at Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) and Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC). Both hospital systems abruptly stopped providing medically necessary care for transgender patients under 19 in late July, leaving patients and their parents stunned, and families scrambling to find alternative options for ongoing care for their children to avoid serious health risks.

The Trump administration has expressed hostility to transgender health care since taking office, but no federal policy compelled Yale New Haven Health or Connecticut Children’s Medical Center to stop providing care to their transgender patients, and neither was subject to any government action to penalize them for providing it. Connecticut law prohibits discrimination against transgender people, including in health care.

The families are represented by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) and attorney Kevin Barry, who filed the complaints with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities on December 16. …

Connecticut law has longstanding protections against discrimination in public accommodations for transgender people and earlier this year the Governor signed legislation affirming the state’s prohibition on discrimination in the provision of health care services. Connecticut is also among multiple states challenging Trump administration efforts to block access to medically necessary care for transgender adolescents.

“These families have lost their faith in the health care system to serve their children,” Hussey added. “They are questioning how they can lose access to care overnight in a state with strong laws like Connecticut.”

The families are represented by attorneys Hannah Hussey, Ben Klein, and Donovan Bendana at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) and by attorney Kevin Barry, Quinnipiac University School of Law.

— from a GLAD Law press release

More: gladlaw.org

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