After two Texas hospitals formally dissolved a clinic that provides gender-affirming care to trans youth late last year, hundreds of doctors, medical students and employees are now petitioning their administrations to prevent it from shuttering.
The 850 signatories from both UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center in Dallas (which jointly operate the clinic) submitted a letter to hospital leadership last Friday, according to the Dallas Morning News, joining the outcry from hundreds of family members of patients in the program. The hospital staff allege that the changes violate doctors’ promises to promote “health and a healthy society.”
“In the same way that gender-affirming care saves lives, a lack of access or undue barriers to gender-affirming care causes real harm,” the petition reads.
The two hospitals quietly cut off treatment access to new patients at the Genecis clinic late last year, simultaneously removing all references to the clinic from their website. While the hospitals maintain that services for existing patients remain unchanged, and that new patients can still seek mental health care (but not puberty-suppressing drugs or hormone replacement therapy), the clinic’s sudden official disappearance alarmed patients and their families, who are already facing mounting political attacks from state lawmakers.
While administrators initially said that the changes were implemented in order to provide increased privacy for the clinic’s participants, UT Southwestern issued a statement earlier this month stating that the decision was made at least in part due to the changing political climate towards trans youth. As a result, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) significantly lowered the institutions’ scores on its health care equality index.
The seven-year-old clinic is the only one of its kind serving trans youth in Texas and in surrounding states; some patients travel from hundreds of miles away in order to access its services, according to the Dallas Morning News. The clinic offers co-ordinated care for patients across fields including endocrinology (providing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy) as well as psychiatry and mental health care to address both the physical and mental aspects of transition.
Genecis’ lead clinician has also taken UT Southwestern to court over the cuts. In a petition filed earlier this month, Ximena Lopez says that the decision violates the university’s non-discrimination policies and potentially exposes her to legal liability.
The shuttering of the clinic comes in the midst of a maelstrom of government attacks on trans youth in Texas. Over the past year and a half, Texas lawmakers have attempted to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth via a number of house bills and administrative directives, which parents and youth say have created a hostile environment for trans youth in the state.
Most recently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive calling for child abuse investigations into parents who helped their kids access gender-affirming care. Though not legally binding, the directive prompted at least nine investigations, resulting in legal challenges and a subsequent injunction against the order.
While all the active investigations have been temporarily suspended under the terms of the injunction, advocates expect the case to head to the Supreme Court of Texas.
Though the injunction has provided temporary relief, trans youth and their families in Texas continue to feel at risk. “I’m concerned that this is just the first step,” said Amber Briggle, whose child receives gender-affirming care through the Genecis program. (Briggle is also one of the parents facing a child abuse investigation under Gov. Abbott’s recent directive.)
Without the vital care provided by Genecis, she and other parents worry that their children’s health will suffer significantly. Many point to research that has shown that gender-affirming care can significantly decrease rates of depression and suicidality in trans youth.
“The type of care offered at Genecis does not exist anywhere else in Texas. As it is, some of us drive hundreds of miles for this care,” wrote families of patients in their letter. “We fear that if Genecis ceases to exist, there would be nowhere for us to go.”
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