Grand marshals demand NYC Pride shut out hospitals that abandoned trans kids

Transgender advocates, along with past and present NYC Pride grand marshals, are demanding that Heritage of Pride bar hospital systems that have stopped providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors from participating in the city’s Pride march on June 28, including NYU Langone Health and Mount Sinai.

Organized by the Gender Liberation Movement, the sign-on letter calls on the organization behind NYC Pride to prohibit any hospital system that has bowed to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle gender-affirming care for minors. It also calls for barring any medical institution that has cooperated with the Justice Department’s attempts to obtain sensitive patient records of transgender minors.

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“Across the country, transgender youth and their families are facing an unprecedented assault on their rights, dignity, and access to healthcare,” the letter reads. “While many institutions have courageously defended trans youth and continued providing medically necessary care despite political pressure, several New York City hospital systems, including NYU Langone, Mt. Sinai, and New York Presbyterian, have instead chosen to preemptively end gender-affirming care for young people, capitulating to the attacks by the Trump Administration.”

So far, according to GLM, prominent 2026 NYC Pride grand marshals, including Bowen Yang, Dominique Jackson, Peppermint, and Jay Walker of Gays Against Guns, have signed on to the effort. Former grand marshals, including Raquel Willis, Michelle Visage, TS Madison, Ceyenne Doroshow, and Jazz Jennings, have also signed on. In addition, 33 parents and family members of transgender children and several LGBTQ+ organizations have supported the petition. In total, 20 grand marshals, 14 LGBTQ+ non-profit and organizing collectives, and 22 LGBTQ+ leaders across the city signed on to the letter.

"Each year, we are tested against the values of our ancestors and transcestors during Pride," Raquel Willis, co-founder of Gender Liberation Movement, tells The Advocate. "This year, when our vulnerable next generation of transgender and nonbinary youth are being denied care, NYC Pride must hold the line and disallow hospitals that have unlawfully upheld hateful policies. Affirming families of trans youth are on the frontlines of the fight against fascism, we owe it to them to defend their access and safety."

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The call for action comes after major hospital systems across the country, including NYU Langone and Mount Sinai, closed or curtailed programs serving transgender minors amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration. In May, NYU Langone became the first hospital system to be criminally subpoenaed for sensitive medical records of patients who received gender-affirming care as minors between 2020 and 2026.

As advocates have urged hospital systems nationwide not to cooperate with subpoenas, and as several judges have blocked the Justice Department's efforts to access patient files, the petition calls on NYC Pride to join that effort. The Gender Liberation Movement, transgender advocates, and their supporters are calling for Heritage of Pride to respond by Monday.

“NYC Pride has an opportunity to take a stand with trans youth and their families and send a message to the Trump administration that the attacks will not stand in New York,” the petition states. “We urge you to demonstrate that the values of Pride are more than symbolic by standing unequivocally with transgender youth and the families fighting for their right to receive care.”