Oakland hospitals must continue providing gender-affirming healthcare in the face of restrictions and threats from the Trump administration, the city’s leaders voted on Monday.
“The Oakland City Council condemns any healthcare providers and insurance carriers that are preemptively stopping, delaying, or impeding patients’ access to state-protected, medically necessary gender-affirming care, prior to full legal implementation of federal regulations or changes in statute,” says a resolution passed unanimously by the council.
Councilmembers Zac Unger, Rowena Brown, and Charlene Wang authored the resolution, which has strong language but doesn’t include penalties for medical providers that flout the demands.
Gender-affirming care is defined by the council as medication, surgery, and counseling that supports a patient’s gender identity when it’s different from what they were assigned at birth. This could include hormone therapy, operations to change one’s outward appearance, or puberty blockers for adolescents, for example.
“Studies consistently show that when transgender people have access to affirming healthcare, their mental health improves, and rates of depression and suicide risk decrease significantly,” wrote Unger in a memo. “Gender-affirming care is life-saving care.”
In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the federal government to stop funding and supporting this care for youth under 19, describing it as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
At the end of the year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed two rules that would prevent hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to youth — which the administration calls “sex-rejecting procedures” — from receiving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Almost all California hospitals cover at least half of their inpatient care with this funding.
In response, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said gender-affirming healthcare is protected by the California constitution. The state has joined multiple lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s actions on this topic.
“These attacks happening from the Trump administration, especially on our youth, it’s not just unfortunate or disappointing,” said Brown at Monday’s meeting, “it’s actually appalling.”
Oakland is home to three major medical institutions: Sutter, Kaiser Permanente, and UC San Francisco. Sutter temporarily stopped providing gender-affirming services, and Kaiser last summer abruptly stopped providing surgeries to patients 18 and under. Kaiser told The Oaklandside in a statement last year that the company made this “difficult decision” in response to the federal government’s messaging.
“Our healthcare providers must not crumble under Trump administration pressure,” wrote Unger in his memo.
In response to the federal government, local families have organized to advocate for their children.
In its resolution, the City Council said it, too, is declaring support for impacted Oakland residents.
“As a proud member of the LGBTQ community, my journey to being here on the City Council has not been an easy one,” said Brown. “Colleagues, by voting yes on this resolution, you are standing with our trans and gender-nonconforming community members, not only here in Oakland but throughout the state of California, to ensure they can have the care and dignity they deserve.”
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