On Saturday, February 8, roughly 1,000 people in New York City attended a “Rise Up For Trans  Youth” rally organized by LGBTQ+ community organizations, including ACT-UP. While the Trump administration has issued many policies targeting trans people in the first three weeks of its term, this rally is specifically in response to the order to rescind federal funding from healthcare providers that offer gender-affirming care to trans people under the age of 19.

“Rise Up For Trans Youth” followed an action earlier in the week organized by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and cosponsored by ACT-UP, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and several New York University (NYU)-based student groups and labor unions in protest of NYU Langone in particular. New York Attorney General Letitia James has warned hospitals that refusing care to trans youth patients is a violation of state human rights laws, but the hospitals seem to have calculated that anticipatory compliance to preserve federal funding is more important than either providing care to a particularly vulnerable group of patients or any penalties that might be levied under state law.

Even in New York City, a city with a vibrant queer history within a so-called “trans sanctuary state,” hospitals such as NYU Langone, New York Presbyterian, and Mt. Sinai have purportedly been canceling appointments for trans youth and/or not accepting new patients seeking care such as puberty blockers. Despite its progressive reputation, it’s important to remember that New York has frequently pioneered LGBTQ+ civil rights legislation and policies not because its politicians are by nature more progressive, but because of decades of struggle by LGBTQ+ activists and their allies.

Speakers at the rally included trans children (including one whose family moved to New York to escape anti-trans legislation in Florida), parents of trans youth, a trans religious leaders, educators, and others.

Most signs held by members of the crowd sported slogans in support of trans youth or criticized the hospitals by name, and others demanded healthcare for all and denounced Trump and Elon Musk. One sign from a would-be patient read, “NYU-Langone said I would start testosterone this week.”

At least one attendee carried a “Silence = Death” sign, a slogan first popularized by ACT-UP against the government’s refusal to name or talk about HIV-AIDS, and more recently repurposed by queer anti-Zionists speaking up about the genocide in Gaza. In this context, the slogan recognizes that failing to stand up for trans healthcare will likely cause a spike in trans suicide rates. 

The day after the election, The Trevor Project saw a 700 percent increase in call volume to its crisis line, with a 33 percent increase compared to previous weeks on election day. Calls to a crisis line are not synonymous with suicidality or with making a suicide attempt, but these data points are still useful in illustrating the widespread distress among trans people in the United States following Trump’s election, even before the executive orders were announced or implemented. The hospitals canceling gender-affirming care appointments know this; a would-be NYU-Langone patient Left Voice interviewed (see above video) reported that in the email canceling their testosterone appointment, NYU included links to suicide hotlines. These hospitals are knowingly putting young people’s lives in danger.

Just as many trans people and families relocated within the United States as over half of the states have passed new anti-trans legislation over the past decade (nearly half of respondents to the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey reported thinking about moving to a new state in response to discriminatory laws, and 5 percent had actually done so), Rolling Stone reported earlier this week that an unprecedented number of trans people and families in the United States are exploring options for asylum claims and other methods of relocating to other countries. 

Although many people are hoping that pending lawsuits will provide some relief, access to healthcare ought not depend on whether a particular judge is sympathetic. Gender-affirming care is time-sensitive, while the legal system is slow; real suffering occurs for every day someone cannot access their medications. Furthermore, in the context of the executive branch’s consolidation of power through Elon Musk’s DOGE team, it remains to be seen which court rulings will actually be obeyed. The rally’s title is completely correct: to protect trans rights, we must “rise up” and demand that trans youth and adults receive healthcare, are able to learn and work in supportive environments, and have access to accurate identity documents. Healthcare workers and education workers can and must organize alongside patients, students, families, and community members to refuse to comply with these unjust orders. Actions like this one are important not only because we must object in every instance of injustice, but also to show less-engaged members of our community that living in a “blue state” does not shield residents from attacks on our rights.