Hey, fam, it's Mia Mara. Welcome to the TransLash podcast, a show where we tell trans stories to save trans lives.

Well, since the beginning of the year, a string of hospital networks in blue states, which legally mandate gender affirming care for trans youth,

have abruptly ended these programs, leaving thousands of kids and their families in a lurch.

That's because in December, RFK Jr. announced new rules at the Department of Health and Human Services

that would effectively ban gender-affirming

care for trans kids nationwide. These rules would end federal health care funds in the form

of Medicaid and Medicare payments to any hospital network that provides this form of care.

Since most hospitals rely on these federal payments to keep going,

the rules would essentially force health care systems to either close their doors or end trans

health care for those under the age of 18. Now, these new rules haven't gone into effect yet,

but hospital networks are already complying in advance. In just the past few weeks,

NYU Landgone and Mount Sinai Health Systems in bright blue New York City announced the end of their

gender-affirming care services, kicking off a statewide political storm there. These closures add on to

those which happened mainly in red states last year.

The bottom line is that we could be on the verge of banning gender-affirming care nationwide

altogether. Joining me to make sense of this accelerating meltdown is Jennifer Levi,

Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights at Glad Law to talk about what all of this means legally.

Giving in and giving up creates an outcome that is not a foregone conclusion at all.

Next up on the show is Key Williams, Executive Director of the New Pride Agenda in New York State

to tell us how activists there

are pushing back to resist these new restrictions.

The far right agenda is not simply to stop gender from care for minors.

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