Protesters lined both sides of Children’s Way outside the main entrance of Rady Children’s Hospital on Saturday, speaking out against the medical center’s decision this week to severely curtail its gender-affirming care program amid pressure from the Trump administration.
Hundreds of people gathered and held signs that said “Betrayal by Radys,” Shame on Radys,” and “Patients Before Politics.” It was a surprising scene for an institution that generally enjoys a surplus of community goodwill for its work with kids fighting severe diagnoses from infectious diseases to genetic disorders.
Robert Gleason, lead of parent advisory at the Rady Gender Clinic, noted that San Diego’s only medical center dedicated to serving children and adolescents created the resource only a decade ago and only after many years of advocacy from families.
“We fought hard for our kids to receive the care they need, and for over a decade, Rady Children’s provided it, not just because we demanded it, but because it’s medically necessary, because it’s the current medical standard of care, because it’s supported by every reputable medical association, because the research and science support it, because it’s carefully considered by patients and their medical providers and fully consented to by their parents, but mostly it’s because our youth deserve it,” Gleason said.
People inside of Rady Children’s Hospital look on as hundreds gather outside to protest the hospital’s decision to end most of its gender-affirming care services on Saturday. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Rady confirmed Tuesday that it will no longer perform “gender-affirming medical interventions, procedures and prescriptions,” though it will still offer supportive care such as counseling, mental health care and care coordination.
The move, Rady said in a short statement, is precipitated by the federal government’s attempt to cancel all Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to medical providers who provide “sex-rejecting procedures on children.”
Organizers said that many of the estimated 1,000 local patients affected by the decision did not attend Saturday’s protest out of fear that they may be persecuted by the Trump administration.
Hundreds gather outside of Rady Children’s Hospital to protest the hospital’s decision to end most of its gender-affirming care services. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
However, a few, such as 17-year-old Autumn Shrader of Oceanside, were willing to participate in the event. Shrader said that she is among those who lost access to hormone treatment when Rady made its decision. It was the second time that access was disrupted, as her family’s Tri-Care military health coverage stopped providing the therapy in April 2025.
Like many who spoke Saturday, Shrader said that she believes cutting treatments, especially access to hormone-replacement therapy, the most common treatment that teens receive, will have life-threatening implications.
“If I did not have HRT, I wouldn’t be here today,” Shrader said.
Loss of access to gender-affirming care, she said, is difficult at the moment because of a Supprelin implant that blocks the hormones her body produces.
“If I don’t have any hormones in my body, my bones are gonna get weaker,” Shrader said. “Essentially, I’m going from the right hormones to absolutely no hormones, and there’s no way to remove it (the implant), because that’s also gender-affirming care.”
Toni Atkins speaks at a protest outside of Rady Children’s Hospital on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Some have undertaken extreme measures to avoid just such an eventuality.
Nichole Peterson of TransFamily Support Services, the nonprofit advocacy group that organized the protest, said that her son, Sam, who received gender-affirming care at Rady for several years, moved to Denmark with his father after the 2024 election when it became clear that such programs would be targeted by a returning Trump administration.
Peterson says Sam became uncomfortable with his biological gender as puberty arrived. The situation, Peterson said, escalated rapidly, at one point sending her through the family home to cover up all of the mirrors as her child’s changing self image triggered severe reactions.
“Suddenly my kid, who was just a kid, felt like their body was rebelling against them … Sam started cutting (himself) and was expressing suicidal thoughts,” Peterson said.
Enrollment in Rady’s gender-affirming care program, she said, was transformative. Drugs used to postpone puberty, counseling and meeting with other kids experiencing the same feelings helped tame the turmoil.
Sarai Luna and Katie Amta, age 12, protest Rady Children’s Hospital decision to end most of its gender-affirming care services. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
While President Donald Trump’s executive order on restricting gender-affirming care says that the push is aimed at “protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” Peterson noted that most parents are thankful to have these treatments, which are only undertaken with extensive counseling and the informed consent of everyone involved.
Her son, now 16, she said, is starting to consider testosterone hormone treatment.
“There’s not all this anti-trans stuff going on in Denmark; the process is different there,” she said. “They just do interviews, and they take you along a journey of like six months to make sure that you and your family are ready mentally and that you understand the consequences.”
What does she say to those who indicate that this therapy is tantamount to child abuse? Peterson says that they would feel differently if they had to watch their own child spiral toward self-destruction.
“Sam is now happy, healthy, thriving,” she said. “He’s going from distress, barely talking to people and being in and out of suicidal treatment, to getting straight As, having a group of friends, leading the Dungeons and Dragons club and doing artwork.”
“I love my kid, and I am doing what the doctors have recommended. We read and studied a lot about this, and so, sorry, I’d rather have a child that’s alive.”
Hundreds gather outside of Rady Children’s Hospital to protest the hospital’s decision to end most of its gender-affirming care services on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Zoë Meyers / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)