{"id":148492,"date":"2026-01-25T02:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T02:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T02:53:09","slug":"hundreds-protest-loss-of-gender-affirming-care-at-rady-childrens-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148492\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds protest loss of gender-affirming care at Rady Children’s Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters lined both sides of Children\u2019s Way outside the main entrance of Rady Children\u2019s Hospital on Saturday, speaking out against the medical center\u2019s decision this week to severely curtail<\/a> its gender-affirming care program amid pressure from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people gathered and held signs that said \u201cBetrayal by Radys,\u201d Shame on Radys,\u201d and \u201cPatients Before Politics.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Robert Gleason, lead of parent advisory at the Rady Gender Clinic, noted that San Diego\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fought hard for our kids to receive the care they need, and for over a decade, Rady Children\u2019s provided it, not just because we demanded it, but because it\u2019s medically necessary, because it\u2019s the current medical standard of care, because it\u2019s supported by every reputable medical association, because the research and science support it, because it\u2019s carefully considered by patients and their medical providers and fully consented to by their parents, but mostly it\u2019s because our youth deserve it,\u201d Gleason said.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople 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. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Rady confirmed<\/a> Tuesday that it will no longer perform \u201cgender-affirming medical interventions, procedures and prescriptions,\u201d though it will still offer supportive care such as counseling, mental health care and care coordination.<\/p>\n

The move, Rady said in a short statement, is precipitated by the federal government\u2019s attempt to cancel all Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to medical providers who provide \u201csex-rejecting procedures on children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organizers said that many of the estimated 1,000 local patients affected by the decision did not attend Saturday\u2019s protest out of fear that they may be persecuted by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\"HundredsHundreds gather outside of Rady Children’s Hospital to protest the hospital’s decision to end most of its gender-affirming care services. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Tri-Care military health coverage stopped providing the therapy in April 2025.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I did not have HRT, I wouldn\u2019t be here today,\u201d Shrader said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t have any hormones in my body, my bones are gonna get weaker,\u201d Shrader said. \u201cEssentially, I\u2019m going from the right hormones to absolutely no hormones, and there\u2019s no way to remove it (the implant), because that\u2019s also gender-affirming care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ToniToni Atkins speaks at a protest outside of Rady Children’s Hospital on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Some have undertaken extreme measures to avoid just such an eventuality.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s changing self image triggered severe reactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly my kid, who was just a kid, felt like their body was rebelling against them \u2026 Sam started cutting (himself) and was expressing suicidal thoughts,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n

Enrollment in Rady\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"SaraiSarai Luna and Katie Amta, age 12, protest Rady Children’s Hospital decision to end most of its gender-affirming care services. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

While President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a> on restricting gender-affirming care says that the push is aimed at \u201cprotecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Her son, now 16, she said, is starting to consider testosterone hormone treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not all this anti-trans stuff going on in Denmark; the process is different there,\u201d she said. \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does she say to those who indicate that this therapy is tantamount to child abuse?\u00a0Peterson says that they would feel differently if they had to watch their own child spiral toward self-destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam is now happy, healthy, thriving,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love my kid, and I am doing what the doctors have recommended. We read and studied a lot about this, and so, sorry, I\u2019d rather have a child that\u2019s alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HundredsHundreds 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. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protesters lined both sides of Children\u2019s Way outside the main entrance of Rady Children\u2019s Hospital on Saturday, speaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-148492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-local-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}