“I want to start with a reminder to transgender young people that might be here today or might watch this later, or that are in your thoughts, which is that it is a gift to know yourself. It is an extraordinary and powerful thing to know who you are, and no one can take that away from you,” PFLAG NYC’s Executive Director Clark Wolff Hamel told the crowd at Monday night’s protest against NYU Langone Health for canceling gender-affirming care appointments for transgender youth 19 years old and under.
Hamel was speaking as a proud trans man, who, like all trans adults, was once a trans kid. He lived many painful years until he finally got the care he needed at NYU.
“We are not going anywhere. And it brings me a lot of joy to share that this is what it looks like, or what it can look like when a trans child gets to grow up, has the opportunity and the chance and the privilege, after years of pain, to grow up, to get the care that we need to survive, to thrive, and I received much of that care a decade ago at NYU,” Hamel continued.
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NYU Langone Health CEO, and dean of NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Robert Grossman, made the decision to end care for trans youth without public notice, activists say, following Donald Trump’s January 28 executive order banning trans healthcare for youth. The parents of transgender youth got word out after their children’s appointments were canceled.
Within 36 hours, trans advocates and families – with help from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – helped to organize several hundred protestors outside of NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital in Manhattan.
The crowd carried signs that read, “F**k Trump,” “Gender Affirming Care Saves Lives,” and “Shame on You NYU,” and the speakers – who included activists, youth, and celebrities – spoke to the illegality of NYU Langone’s actions as well as their efforts to eradicate the at-large trans community.
“[Trans] power is undeniable,” NYC trans activist and costume designer Qween Jean passionately enunciated to the audience.
Behind Jean, transgender flags flew among Palestinian and Lebanese flags to signal support for struggles outside of New York City.
“But what is not divine, are these bigots in power,” Jean continued. “I call them misleaders because they’re not leading us anywhere good. They have targeted us for the past few years, and the people in power, the left, the right, everybody in between, have remained silent. They have been working to undermine our intelligence, to undermine our contributions, to undermine our innovation. We are trans people. We are trans, and we will never be eradicated.”
Families empowered their 17-year-olds to speak up and tell their stories to the crowd.
“It’s a little awkward because I feel like I’m the only kid surrounded by adults, but it’s so amazing,” New York transgender youth Lorelei Crean told the crowd. “Since Trump has come into office my rights have been continually stripped.”
Crean spoke to Trump’s executive order mandating the removal of “X” gender markers as an option on passports. That order complicates Crean’s lived reality as a trans nonbinary person.
“I got my passport with an ‘X’ gender marker back in 2023, and when I received it in the mail, it was one of the happiest days of my life,” Crean shared.
Crean has been certain of their gender since they were at least 12 years old, they said.
Cynthia Nixon – an NYU patient, mother of a trans person, and former candidate for New York governor – also spoke at the rally.
Nixon told the crowd that she is showing up as the aunt of a proud trans man, the proud protector of her best friend’s kid who is trans, and her kid’s best friend who is trans. “My wife and I, our lives are filled with the most amazing, beautiful, brave trans people young and old, but especially young,” Nixon said over roaring cheers of support.
“I want to tell the people at NYU, as I told you, I just live a few blocks away. You’re going to be seeing a lot of me, and you’re going to see a lot of this amazing crowd of people, and there are a lot of people here, and they are mad as hell.”
In between speakers, members of DSA handed out QR codes to scan in order to send a letter demanding NYU Langone resume life-saving healthcare for trans youth.
“If you are a New Yorker that is prepared to fight like hell for your trans loved ones and neighbors let me hear you now!” roared District 22 New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, a Democrat as well as a member of DSA. “I am here to tell you the first rule against tyranny is you do not obey in advance.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James earlier this week warned New York hospitals that complying with the White House’s executive order violates state law.
In a letter, James reminded institutions who comply with Trump’s Executive Orders that the “Office of the New York State Attorney General, as well as 22 other Attorneys General from across the country, filed a lawsuit in federal district court on January 28 seeking to halt the federal government’s illegal efforts to freeze federal funding to hospitals” who treat trans youth in line with best practice medicine. A best practice recommended by most credible medical associations.
While New York state’s leadership is fighting Trump’s anti-trans actions, other states have already been advancing such policies. More than two dozen states have put restrictions or bans on gender-affirming care for children, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
“What we are seeing right now is Trump and Musk blackmailing our very institutions that should be delivering life-saving care to New Yorkers across the city and state,” Cabán told the crowd. “And the fact of the matter is that executive administrative action is not the law of the land.”
Since Trump took office, he has signed numerous executive orders, many attacking trans people garnering the attention of the ACLU. Transgender young adults and families with transgender youth joined PFLAG National, Lambda Legal, and GLMA (an LGBTQ+ health care professional organization) in a federal legal challenge against the anti-transgender care executive order.
“Today’s order lays out a clear plan to shut down access to life-saving medical care for transgender youth nationwide, overriding the role of families and putting politics between patients and their doctors. We will not allow this dangerous, sweeping, and unconstitutional order to stand,” said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project in a press release.
In December of 2024, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a landmark case challenging Tennessee’s ban on transgender healthcare for trans youth that included hormonal therapies. The lawsuit argues that Tennessee’s ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating based on sex. A decision from the court is expected in June 2025.
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