SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Protesters gathered outside Rady Children's Hospital Saturday morning after the hospital announced it will end gender-affirming care for patients under 18.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community, families and allies raised their voices for care they say is crucial for transgender youth.
"It allowed me to actually pull my life together, and I just want to be here for kids who deserve the same kind of opportunities I do, when they're ready for them," Tara Braswell said.
Braswell was at the protest holding a sign that read "HRT saved my life." She says without gender-affirming care, her mental health would have taken a turn, and she doesn't want that to happen to kids.
"These services give kids the space to feel like themselves, to be themselves, and to be more than they thought they could," Braswell said.
Braswell started gender-affirming care in her mid-20s.
Dave Timmons, whose 34-year-old child is transgender, also attended the protest.
"We have a child that's 34, that's trans," Timmons said.
Michael Summers said he came to show solidarity.
Rady Children's Hospital says the change comes after federal warnings that hospitals continuing this care could lose Medicare and Medicaid funding — money used for services like organ transplants and Medi-Cal coverage.
Rady called it a "difficult" decision but one that had to be done to continue serving all children and families across the communities they serve.
Protest organizers say this decision means losing one of the only options for families in San Diego County.
"We don't have providers in San Diego County. We have 80 children. Hospital. That's it," said Kathie Moehlig, executive director of Trans Family Support Services and protest organizer.
Moehlig, whose son was one of the first patients Rady treated 14 years ago, says the hospital should have fought the federal pressure.
"It is medically necessary care, and we just need Rady to fight. There are other institutions, other hospitals across the country that are fighting the administration on this, and Rady should have made that choice," Moehlig said.
Moehlig says Rady's new policy will go into effect February 6. In the meantime, her team will be helping patients find new providers.
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