Having access to necessary care with trained professionals is lifesaving for young transgender people. When a person’s gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, they can experience many symptoms, including depression and anxiety, until they have affirming resources and are allowed to live their life as their true self.
For many young transgender people, gender-affirming care can typically include hormone treatment, puberty blockers, and counseling. For others, it’s having access to providers that affirm their identity by acknowledging their pronouns and chosen names. It almost never includes any kind of surgery.
This care is a lifeline for many transgender people. And while the U.S. Supreme Court’s devastating decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti found that state bans on healthcare for young people are not unconstitutional, gender-affirming care remains legal in Pennsylvania.
Of course, as we’ve learned in the context of abortion, legality does not equate to access. And now two of the commonwealth’s largest healthcare providers, UPMC and Penn State Health, are refusing to provide care for transgender individuals under the age of 19 after years of doing so.
These massive institutions are caving to a political current that has targeted transgender people. UPMC and Penn State Health are turning their backs on their young patients at a time in their lives when accessing necessary healthcare can be the difference between academic success and failure, fulfilling social lives and ostracization, and even life and death.
On June 30, UPMC stopped providing care for transgender individuals under 19 years of age. According to a recent report from Pennlive, Penn State Health abruptly stopped providing care in June, after previously telling a patient that treatment would end on August 1, and neither are referring patients to alternative providers. Both institutions have been cowed by an executive order issued by Donald Trump earlier this year threatening the withholding of federal funds to institutions that provide care for trans youth under 19 and the threats by AG Bondi on implications for providers who continue to provide care for transgender minors
UPMC and Penn State Health don’t seem to understand that the Trump administration doesn’t get to just change the law with the swipe of a pen. And that executive order has been halted after it was challenged in court by trans young people and their families, represented by the ACLU and Lambda Legal.
More importantly, who are these institutions choosing to side with? Trump and anti-trans advocates? Or their patients? All of us should have the freedom to make decisions about our bodies and our healthcare. The decision for a young person to start gender-affirming treatment is between them, their parents, and their healthcare providers, not politicians in Washington or state capitols. At a time when young trans people in Pennsylvania need powerful institutions to stand up for them the most, UPMC and Penn State Health are caving.
The ACLU advocates for the legality of and access to gender-affirming care because we have a 105-year track record of fighting for equality and equity for all, especially those who have been marginalized and had their rights compromised, historically and in the present moment.
Thankfully, our community is not letting UPMC and Penn State Health’s actions go unanswered. Nearly 400 UPMC employees have signed an open letter to the company denouncing the change in policy and demanding that the board reverse its decision.
Our friends at TransYOUniting PGH, Eastern PA Trans Equity Project, and Pennsylvania Youth Congress have organized several rallies at UPMC’s headquarters. Leaders are speaking out and demanding that Governor Shapiro take tangible actions to protect the right to have access to care for the many young transgender Pennsylvanians
These can feel like difficult and dark times for transgender Americans. A transphobic, authoritarian movement has a stronghold on many state legislatures and apparently the U.S. Supreme Court. So what gives us hope at this moment?
Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer who argued the Skrmetti case (and who was the first openly trans lawyer to ever argue before the court), recently appeared on Slate’s podcast Amicus. Citing both historical progress as well as setbacks for TLGBQIA+ equality, Chase said, “We have a long history of people who have taught us how to transform the world. And the thing that gives me the most sense of joy, purpose, and hope is the way in which young people know themselves and are willing to fight for themselves.” He went on to cite the example of the community fighting back after a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing state bans on sexual intimacy between same-sex partners. The work the community did, staying in the struggle, ultimately led to that case being overturned 17 years later.
We’re in a moment like that again. And we’re in this struggle because the dignity, rights, and lives of trans people are worth fighting for.
