ST. PAUL, Minn. — Today, Children’s Minnesota announced it will be putting a pause on some gender affirming care (GAC) services due to ongoing federal actions against trans healthcare, and retribution against Minnesota’s trans community which threatens to close Children’s Minnesota entirely.
Children’s Minnesota is one of a handful of children’s hospitals in the country relentlessly threatened with federal investigation for doing what all hospitals should do: providing the best possible care they can to patients and families. These threats are consistent with the Trump administration’s continued use of all available levers to block lifesaving health care and basic human dignity from the trans community.
The administration previously pressured hospitals to halt gender-affirming care by executive orders and threats to revoke federal funding. This pressure campaign worked in many cases, but not in Minnesota. Now, Health and Human Services (HHS)’s threat of investigations marks a new escalation. They stem from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy saying that, under his authority, he can unilaterally decide that gender-affirming care — which he calls “sex-rejecting procedures” — is not a safe and effective treatment for trans youth.
Members of the Minnesota Bicameral Queer Legislators Caucus issue the following statement:
“We are deeply saddened and upset that this moment has come. Any loss of access to healthcare in Minesota–even temporarily—is unacceptable. Targeting vulnerable trans kids in this way is simply horrific. Children’s Minnesota and its dedicated providers have been a strong source of acceptance and affirmation for young transgender, non-binary, and Two Spirit Minnesotans, and we know families across the state are reeling from this news. As a trans refuge state, we refuse to let political bullying put our children at risk. The Trump administration and Sec. Kennedy are forcing specialized medical professionals and hospitals into an impossible position. This wave of political extortion efforts creates a dangerous precedent that puts every Minnesotan at risk by prioritizing ideological agendas over the lives of our youngest residents.
“Gender-affirming care saves lives. Our beloved trans community is an integral part of our society, and trans children deserve to become trans adults. The federal government’s abuse of power and overreach into private medical decisions is a concerted effort to eliminate trans people from public life. This inhumane targeting of our children—using executive orders, funding threats, and harassment of hospitals and doctors as political leverage—is a violation of human decency. Shame on this administration for wagering the lives of our nation’s youth for political gain. When our young children tell us who they are, we are obligated to listen to them, love them, and support them in their journey. In Minnesota our laws protect our trans youth, their families, and the medical doctors and practitioners who provide health care to them.
“Gender affirming care for patients of all ages is still legal in Minnesota. We will do everything in our power, to the bitter end, to ensure it remains so.”
On January 16, Attorney General Ellison joined a coalition of 12 attorneys general in suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for unlawfully conditioning hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding on states’ agreement to discriminate against transgender people. Under a new HHS policy, recipients of federal health, education, and research funding must certify compliance with a presidential executive order that seeks to deny the existence of transgender people and impose rigid, unscientific definitions of sex.
The Minnesota Queer Legislators Caucus is composed of members of the Minnesota State House and Senate who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. The Queer Caucus works to advance and protect the rights of queer communities as well as the rights of our intersecting communities.
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