Fair Wisconsin: Broad coalition calls on CEOs of UW Health and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to restart gender-affirming care: “Our youth are counting on you.”

To UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan and CHOW CEO Gil Peri:

We, the undersigned organizations, call on the leadership at UW-Health and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to restart the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth. Gender-affirming care is legal in Wisconsin, but it is increasingly more and more difficult to access due to decisions made to pause the provision of this care at your institutions. These decisions must be reversed and care restarted immediately. 

According to publicly available reporting in January, both hospitals paused the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth due to federal decisions; UW Health cited “federal actions” and CHOW cited “escalating legal and federal regulatory risk” when asked. The April decision in the State of Oregon v. Kennedy lawsuit vacated the HHS Declaration that threatened gender-affirming care, and issued an injunction against any use of the declaration or any materially similar policy against the plaintiff states, including Wisconsin. This decision puts a stop to the federal action that had, until now, presented the most imminent threat of enforcement. The other most recent federal action was the proposal of rules threatening access to gender-affirming care for youth, and those proposed rules are exactly that – proposed, not finalized, and not in effect. As Judge Kasubhai stated in his decision out of the District Court of Oregon, “there is nothing more serious than our leaders’ dedication to the rule of law,” and we agree; we call on our hospital leaders to act on their dedication to their patients and reinstate this legal and medically necessary care for our youth. 

Transition-related gender-affirming health care for transgender young people is medically necessary care, just like the kids who receive it, and all kids, are necessary. It is age-appropriate, just as it is appropriate to believe someone at any age when they tell you they know who they are and how they want to live, a perspective backed by rigorous scientific evidence. For young people, it is accessed with informed consent of the patient and their parents. It is individualized, just like the young people who receive it are, themselves, unique individuals. It is high-quality, just like the bright future this state and country have ahead of us when all our children thrive. Young people and their families deserve to know it is within their power to continue to access this medically necessary care. All these young people want, and all their families and providers want for them, is for them to be able to thrive and live in a body that feels like home. The provision of gender-affirming care makes that possible.

The provision of gender-affirming care is how we ensure Wisconsin’s transgender young people can become the healthy adults and compassionate leaders we know this state needs. Every day trangender young people can access this medically necessary, age-appropriate, individualized, high-quality health care is one more day that helps our youth build a future – build their own future and build the future of our state. 

We eagerly await your reply, and look forward to the day trangender young people in Wisconsin are again able to access gender-affirming care at UW Health and CHOW. Our youth are counting on you.

Sincerely,

Fair Wisconsin

GSAFE

A Better Wisconsin Together

A Room of One’s Own Bookstore

ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation

Ahan

Awesomely Radical Love

Baldwin’s Books & Records

Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity

Becoming Better Neighbors

Bethany United Methodist Church – Madison

Bi+ Pride Milwaukee

BLB Productions

Blue Bar Quilts, Inc.

Cash & Olive’s Pub

Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center

Common Grace

Community Pharmacy Cooperative

Courage+

Delta Beer Lab

Diverse & Resilient

EarthWise Pet Supply – Madison, WI

Embolden WI

End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin

Families for Justice

First Baptist Church of Madison

FLYY

Freedom Action NOW

Freedom, Inc.

Hate Free Outagamie

Indivisible Madison East

Kenosha Pride

Lion’s Tooth

Luna Creative Collaborations, LLC

Madison Minotaurs Rugby Club

Madison Transgender Resistance Action Committee

MARRCH

Memorial UCC, Fitchburg

Middleton Community United Church of Christ

Middleton Pride

Milwaukee LGBT Community Center

MN Transgender Alliance – NW WI Chapter

National Association of Social Workers, Wisconsin Chapter

Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Our Lives magazine

Outreach, Inc.

PFLAG Madison

PFLAG Mount Horeb

PFLAG Waukesha

Pride At Work-Milwaukee Area Chapter

Providers and Teens Communicating for Health (PATCH)

Queer Campout

Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee

Salem United Church of Christ

Sun Seeker MKE

Trans Advocacy Madison

Trans Law Help Wisconsin, Inc.

Trans Liberation Milwaukee

Trans Medical Mutual Aid

Trans Northland

Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools

Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Wisconsin Council of Churches

Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project

Wisconsin Public Education Network

Wisconsin United Roller Derby

For previous press releases, including on the importance of access to gender-affirming care for trans youth and actions taken against federal threats, visit https://fairwisconsin.com/news-press/.