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Fenway Health in Boston, MA
Officials with the clinic, which has served LGBTQ+ Bostonians since 1971, say they made the move to avoid losing federal funding under the anti-trans Trump administration.
Boston’s Fenway Health, one of the nation’s leading providers of health care to LGBTQ+ people, has decided to stop offering hormones and puberty blockers to transgender patients under 19 to avoid losing federal funding.
The clinic has to comply with U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration rules to retain its designation as a Federally Qualified Health Center, officials said in a letter to clients, as reported by The Boston Globe. Federally Qualified Health Centers offer services regardless of clients’ ability to pay. “It could lose its FQHC designation and funding if found out of compliance with federal rules,” the Globe notes.
Donald Trump issued an executive order in January directing federal health agencies to cease funding gender-affirming care for those under 19. “Earlier this fall, the Health Resources and Services Administration said stopping medical and surgical gender-affirming care for adolescents was a priority for the agency,” the Globe reports.
“This change in position is a response to a shifting federal landscape that requires us to adapt in order to remain compliant, sustainable, and able to provide healthcare, support, and services to all our patients and the community,” the letter to patients said. “[The status] loss would significantly challenge our ability to meet the needs of all who rely on us.”
Fenway Health officials said they would help patients find other sources of care. Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center are among local providers of gender-affirming care for trans minors. But numerous hospitals and clinics around the nation have ceased offering this care to young people because of the Trump administration's directive. Some have stopped offering transition surgery to minors; young people almost never undergo genital surgery anyway, although some do have top surgery.
Other providers and some states, however, have responded by suing the administration.
The Fenway Health announcement was seen as a blow because of the center’s importance to the LGBTQ+ community. Founded in 1971, it “was instrumental during the AIDS epidemic and has launched numerous programs specific to the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, and transgender Boston residents,” the Globe notes.
Lisa Thornton moved from Florida to Boston last year with her trans daughter because of Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors. She told the paper she was initially enraged by Fenway Health’s move. Then “I assured [my daughter] we would be fine and her care won’t be interrupted since we’ve been through this before and found a way,” she said. “We will always find a way.”
Another mother of a trans daughter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said she was relieved there were other local sources of care. “I was starting to wonder if we were going to have to move to Canada,” she said.
Nina Selvaggio, executive director of the Greater Boston chapter of PFLAG, told the Globe she isn’t aware of other area providers limiting the care. But dealing with the anti-LGBTQ+ and specifically anti-trans positions of the Trump administration has been difficult, she said. “It feels like daily there are blows dealt to our community,” she said. “We’re all trying to do the best we can.”
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