LOS ANGELESG Sage Sol Pitchenik wanted to hide as a child.
The 16-year-old nonbinary person stated, “I detested my body.” I detested seeing it.
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Pitchenik, who uses the pronoun they, began visiting the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the largest public provider of services for children and teens in the nation, after treatment failed to assist. Their lives were altered by it.
However, the clinic will close on July 22 in response to the Trump administration’s targeting of facilities that provide minors with gender-affirming care. Pitchenik is one of the many demonstrators who have frequently gathered outside the hospital to demand that it remain open.
Quietness is over for trans youngsters. With dozens of demonstrators cheering, Pitchenik stated, “Trans kids are done being polite, and trans kids are done begging for the bare minimum, begging for the chance to grow up, to have a future, to be loved by others when sometimes we can’t even love ourselves.”
They spent six years in the center.
“It meant the world to have someone who is specifically trained to speak with you because there aren’t many people who understand what it’s like,” they told The Associated Press, referring to the widespread discrimination and intolerance.
The legacy of the center
The program has been serving thousands of adolescents on public insurance for thirty years, making it one of the nation’s oldest trans youth clinics.
Counseling is provided to patients who have not yet reached puberty and continues throughout the course of treatment. Hormone replacement treatment is the next step for some individuals, while it is also for others. Rarely are surgeries performed.
After a drawn-out procedure, Pitchenik added, “I’m one of the lucky ones,” who was given hormone blockers. The life-saving medical care I received at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles taught me how to not only live but also thrive in my own body.
In a mix of already overburdened public and private providers, many families are now frantically searching for care. In addition to patient treatment, research development is coming to an end.
The care that trans youth receive is being disrupted by this sudden shutdown, which is disappointing. However, it also tarnishes their memory, according to Maria Do, the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s community mobilization manager. It demonstrates, in my opinion, how quickly they desert our most defenseless members.
The closure coincides with other federal initiatives to end gender-affirming care for kids, which Tennessee banned weeks ago.
After announcing its closure plans in February, which sparked protests, the hospital first backed off, but then changed its mind.
“Despite this deeply held commitment to supporting LA’s gender-diverse community, the hospital has been left with no viable path forward to stay open,” the center said in a statement.
“The decision was not made lightly, but after a thorough legal and financial assessment of the increasingly severe impacts of recent administrative actions and proposed policies,” the statement read, adding that center team members were devastated to receive the news from hospital leaders.
The hospital is breaking state antidiscrimination laws by closing the center, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, but his agency hasn’t done anything about it. In February, Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the executive order, joined by the attorney generals of 22 other states.
In an email to the AP, Bonta said that the Trump administration’s unrelenting attack on transgender teenagers is nothing less than a full-scale campaign to deny LGBTQ+ rights. The transgender community in California is suffering as a result of the Administration’s damaging attacks, which aim to deter medical professionals and healthcare facilities from offering nondiscriminatory treatment. In summary, this care is still permitted in California.
Health care professionals and LGBTQ+ demonstrators provide visibility
After a hard shift as a nurse in the hospital’s emergency room, Jack Brenner joined the demonstrators while still in his scrubs. He used a megaphone to address the audience while fighting back tears.
Brenner, who was seeing a group of demonstrators holding banners and trans pride flags, stated, “Our visibility is so important for our youth.” to realize that you have a future and that you may mature and be who you truly are.
Brenner, who goes by the pronoun they, didn’t grow up seeing others who looked like them or learning what it meant to be transgender until they were in their mid-20s.
“Looking back, a lot of things are falling into place,” Brenner said. “I definitely didn’t have a language for it when I was a kid, and I didn’t know what the source of my pain and suffering was.” I’m coming to terms with the extent to which gender dysphoria contributed to my suffering.
A 2024 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that trans children and teens are more likely to die by suicide.
Brenner talked about seeing young people experiencing a mental health crisis in the emergency department who are transgender or otherwise on the gender nonconforming spectrum. Brenner indicates their gender identity by wearing a lanyard full of vibrant pins that are embroidered with the words they/them.
Brenner stated: “I see the shift in children’s eyes, little glints of recognition that I am a trans adult and that there is a future.” When children perceive a part of themselves in me, I’ve witnessed their joy. And the fact that I can offer that is really significant.
The closure patient abandonment was referred to by Beth Hossfeld, a marriage and family therapist and the grandmother of two children, ages 11 and 13, who were treated at the center.
“I find it troubling that it’s a political decision rather than a medical one,” she remarked.
