Since June, the Center alongside partners—Lambda Legal, Gender Justice LA (GJLA), FLUX, TransLatin@ Coalition, and REACH LA—gathered community members, advocates, and allies in a series of weekly rallies to demand that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) reverse its decision to shut down its Center for Transyouth Health and Development and Gender-Affirming Care surgical program.
The final rally, held on June 17, fell just days ahead of the clinic’s permanent closure on July 22. More than 250 community members gathered to demand that the hospital reverse its decision and to call on local and state officials to take action. Attendees rallied with a variety of posters, dip-dye butterfly signs, and over 2000 origami butterflies crafted and assembled by volunteers at our concurrent art actions to represent the over 2000 patients that have lost their care as a result of CHLA’s decision.
“We’ve gathered week after week in the name of defiant love and joy, turning our grief and outrage into action,” said Maria Do, the Center’s Community Mobilization Manager and one of the rally’s lead organizers. “And even though we are just five days away from CHLA’s official closure date, we are not standing here in defeat. We are standing in truth, power, and clarity of purpose.”
The fight began earlier this year, when CHLA preemptively complied with Donald Trump’s unlawful executive order attempting to ban gender-affirming care for youth under age 19. Public pressure—including a Center-led protest in front of CHLA and over 3,000 emails from community members demanding they reverse their decision—led the hospital to reinstate hormone replacement therapy to new patients.
However, CHLA announced a devastating reversal last month: It would permanently shut down its gender clinic on July 22, once again threatening access to life-saving care for transgender, nonbinary, intersex, and gender-expansive youth and families.
“Instead of protecting that care, CHLA caved,” said Sydney Rogers, a program manager of the Trans Economic Empowerment Program at the Center. “Instead of defending the youth they once promised to serve, they closed the doors and turned off the lights. Now families across L.A. are scrambling for crumbs in a healthcare system built on fear.”
Speakers at each rally included former CHLA patients, parents of transgender youth, and community leaders speaking out against the closure. Attendees gathered across the street from the hospital’s main entrance, chanting “protect trans youth” and “stand up, fight back.”
“The fight doesn’t end here,” Do said in her closing remarks. “If CHLA won’t do the right thing, then we’ll build something better. If our government won’t protect us, then we’ll protect each other. … Keep organizing. Keep showing up. Keep taking up space. Keep speaking out.”
In addition to urging CHLA to restore care for transgender youth, the Center is also endorsing a slate of state bills that protect the privacy, safety, and dignity of those being denied care. You can read more about the four bills below and take action by contacting your representatives to voice your support for this slate of bills.
Protects the privacy of sensitive medical data by prohibiting the reporting of testosterone and mifepristone to the state’s prescription drug database. The bill will also extend California’s landmark Safe at Home Program to expand existing protections against doxing to include patients and providers of gender-affirming care.
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