UPMC workers to join community groups in march for transgender health care

In response to restrictions enacted under the Trump administration, some UPMC providers are joining community groups in a show of support for restoring gender-affirming care to transgender youth next week.

On Monday, a group of UPMC workers and members of Trans YOUniting and ACT UP plan to march across Downtown Pittsburgh from Pittsburgh Mellon Square to the U.S. Steel Headquarters.

The march follows UPMC’s announcement in June, that it would be ending gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, for patients under 19 years old following Trump administration policies aimed at transgender youth.

In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for limitations on gender-affirming care. The order also threatened to withhold federal funds from institutions that continued to provide it. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the Department of Justice to prosecute doctors who administer gender-affirming care in April.

“As we continue to monitor any executive branch memos, directives, subpoenas and other guidance from the Trump administration, these actions have made it abundantly clear that our clinicians can no longer provide certain types of gender-affirming care without risk of criminal prosecution,” a UPMC spokesperson said in a statement to TribLive on Friday.

Since June, over 450 UPMC staff members have signed a letter, addressed to the health giant’s CEO Leslie Davis, Chief Medical Officer Donald Yealy and the UPMC Children’s Hospital Board of Directors.

“These directives are aimed at terrorizing medical institutions and providers, but they do not change any existing laws,” the letter said. “We ask UPMC to use its immense resources to fully protect us as providers and our clients instead of preemptively complying with threats from the White House that are decidedly not laws. The lives, health, and wellbeing of our clients and the safety of our providers depend on your choice.”

Katherine Anderson, who works as a therapist for a UPMC outpatient center focused on suicide prevention, said that she and coworkers were told to expect an increase of patients in the months following the announcement. However, the clinics have not yet received additional training and support on how to handle the influx.

“UPMC higher-ups are not preparing their clinics,” Anderson said.

At the demonstration, UPMC workers and organizers will speak about how UPMC’s decision to end gender-affirming care for trans youth has impacted their lives, their clients, family members and community.

The demonstration includes a funeral procession and “die-in” to mourn the loss of health care for trans youth and demand the immediate re-instating of care. A die-in is a form of nonviolent protest in which participants lie on the ground in a public space to resemble dead bodies to draw attention to a cause.

The die-in, following the march, is expected to last 375 seconds for the 375 people who lost care, Anderson said.