Activists, elected officials rail against UPMC's decision to end gender-affirming care for minors

Dozens of LGBTQ+ advocates, elected officials and supporters gathered outside UPMC’s Downtown Pittsburgh headquarters Sunday to rally against the health care giant’s decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth.

UPMC has confirmed it will end gender-affirming care for patients under age 19 in response to an order from President Donald Trump calling for stricter limitations on gender-affirming care.

“They’re using our babies as political pawns,” TransYOUniting executive director Dena Stanley told throngs of supporters, who responded with cries of “shame.”

Kaiah Scott, program coordinator of local LGBTQ advocacy organization QMNTY, recalled her own experiences seeking gender-affirming care as a teenager. That care, she said, allowed her to “begin to thrive” and to feel confident in her body.

“Starting hormone therapy at age 16 was not just about changing my body,” she said. “It was about claiming my future.”

People chanted “UPMC, shame on you” and “protect trans youth by any means necessary.” Many held signs with messages like “UPMC: Do no harm,” “Keep their laws off our kids’ bodies” and “Support trans youth.”

State Rep. Jessica Benham, D-South Side, said UPMC “capitulated preemptively” to Trump’s calls to restrict gender-affirming care.

“We believe that trans people have the right to exist, to thrive and to access the health care that makes that all possible, and we are here today because that is under threat,” Benham said.

Trump in a January executive order threatened to withhold federal funds from institutions that provide such care. His order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” called on federal leaders to “immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Department of Justice to support prosecution of doctors who administer gender-affirming care.

A UPMC spokesperson, in a statement to TribLive, said that federal guidance has made it clear that clinicians who provide puberty blockers, hormone therapy and other such care risk criminal prosecution.

The health care network will continue providing behavioral health support and other care “within the bounds of the law,” the UPMC spokesperson said.

“We empathize deeply with the patients and families affected by these ongoing changes,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Though UPMC has not confirmed when it will stop gender-affirming care for minors, impacted families were told June 30 is the cutoff.

The news has been met with sharp criticisms from elected officials and the LGBTQ+ community, who hosted a similar rally protesting UPMC’s decision in April.

Mayor Ed Gainey on Sunday said halting gender-affirming care is “the wrong side of humanity.”

City Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, decried UPMC’s actions as “evil” and urged everyone — even those not affected by the health network’s ban on transgender care for minors — to stand up against the new policy.

“If you don’t think they’re coming for your measles vaccines next, you are kidding yourself,” she said. “They start with the most vulnerable.”

But some UPMC workers already are pushing back. A group of UPMC workers on Sunday said nearly 400 have signed on to an open letter to the health network’s leadership that argues the lack of care could push transgender youth to suicide and exacerbate mental health concerns.

“Queer and trans humans are still fighting for the right to exist in 2025 during Pride Month,” UPMC nurse Olivia Mincone said.