Hundreds of protestors rallied outside Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in East Hollywood Thursday at 5 p.m. after the hospital announced on Tuesday that it would be placing an indefinite pause on hormonal therapy treatment for new transgender patients under 19. Patients receiving care prior to this decision will continue to be provided gender-affirming treatment.
The hospital confirmed in a statement that the decision was a response to Donald Trump’s executive order entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which threatens to cut federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming medical care for children and young adults under the age of 19.
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Protests erupt across the country as trans people find themselves locked out of health care
Families moved states to keep access to gender-affirming care, only for hospitals to stop providing it when Trump took office. They’re angry.
Despite the rain Thursday night, protestors were not deterred, the event saw a packed crowd holding signs and making it clear that their voices would be heard.
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Hundreds of protesters gather outside Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to demand it roll back restrictions on transgender care for youth:
— Emily Alpert Reyes (@primateyell.bsky.social) Feb 6, 2025 at 8:30 PM
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i guess any coverage is good, but the (very brief) footage in this article is from before the rally actually started – once it got going it was packed out there. hope to see chla reverse their decision soon or i'm sure we'll be back
— corey marra (@coribald.com) February 6, 2025 at 11:32 PM
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Hundreds of people came out in the rain tonight to call for Children’s Hospital LA to end its restrictions on trans youth care. It was INSPIRING AS FUCK and gave me hope for the tough days ahead for our country. Keep shouting everybody! Keep fighting!
— Tucker Cawley (@tuckercawley.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 10:59 PM
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Of the various attendees were transgender people, teachers, and parents of transgender children. Public figures in attendance included Los Angeles City Council members Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martinez. Soto-Martinez represents the district where the Children’s Hospital is located and has urged the facility to “take a stand against these hateful and illegal policies.”
One parent, Juan Carlos Pérez, told the crowd: “To think that my child feels threatened, and feels like their life doesn’t matter, feels like their life can be compromised, is more than just infuriating. It’s offensive to me.”
Another protestor told an NBC reporter, “What’s happening at CHLA is unprecedented and unnecessary. This is one of the first hospitals in the country to provide gender-affirming care to trans young people, and hospitals around the country are looking to CHLA right now to see how they are going to respond to these unlawful executive orders and the decision that they made to deny care to trans youth didn’t need to happen and it’s not too late to reverse it.”
CHLA is one of many hospitals that have chosen to take action against providing gender treatment following the order. Another notable example is NYU Langone in New York City, which started canceling appointments made for transgender patients shortly after the executive order was signed. Like CHLA, people organized a protest in response to NYU Langone’s denial of care. The protests in New York followed two other major protests surrounding the executive order that occurred in the days prior.
What is rather concerning for many of the protestors is that the majority of these hospitals are in sanctuary states that passed laws protecting transgender people from discrimination or prosecution if they had to cross state lines to get treatment.
One of the latest blue state hospitals to announce that it was stopping gender-affirming care was Seattle Children’s Hospital, which decided to pull the plug hours before a top surgery that was scheduled for a 16-year-old patient.
Several Democratic state attorneys general have sent letters to hospitals in their states, urging them to continue treating transgender patients and warning them that it would violate state law to discriminate against transgender patients by refusing to provide treatments for them that are available to cisgender patients.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is among those AGs and has issued a letter to CHLA putting them on notice for their obligations under anti-discrimination law.
“The law requires [hospitals] to continue to provide gender-affirming care to our transgender community. We will have the transgender community’s back. We will fight for their rights, for their protections, for their freedoms,” Bonta told The Guardian in a statement on Wednesday.
A second protest was held at the University of Illinois Health the same day that UI Health decided to halt gender-affirming care for those under 19.
It is reported that about 100 people gathered outside UI Health.
Univ of IL Health, which runs UIC Hospital, has reportedly been quietly enforcing Trump’s illegal & discriminatory ban on gender affirming care for trans, nonbinary, & intersex youth under 19 yo. Join the protest: Thurs 2/6, noon, UIC West Campus (Hermitage & Taylor). #Chicago #ProtectTransYouth
— jung 정 (@itsjunghan.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 9:10 AM
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Yesterday afternoon, ~100 people gathered outside of UI Health to protest its cancellation of youth gender affirming care appTS, despite state directives to do otherwise. Organizers did a good job of connecting this transphobia to economic, class, labor, & union issues at UIC, in Chicago, & beyond.
— jung 정 (@itsjunghan.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 10:06 AM
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Scenes from a rally in Chicago yesterday to demand UI Health continue to give gender-affirming care to trans youth in the wake of the Trump admin's attacks on trans people. The facility initially cancelled a surgery, but now says it will "continue to provide gender-affirming care"
— Aaron Cynic (@aaroncynic.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 6:58 AM
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