Around 80 protesters rallied outside NYU Langone Health’s Kips Bay location on Sunday to denounce the medical center’s termination of gender-affirming care for minors, which came amid the Trump administration’s threats to cut Medicare and Medicaid.

Members of several citywide LGBTQ+ organizations — including The NEW Pride Agenda, Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn and Trans formative Schools — gathered in the public plaza across from the hospital at around 1 p.m. Protesters held signs reading “NYU SUPPORT TRANS KIDS” and “GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTHCARE SAVES LIVES” while chanting “Stand up, fight now” and “No fear, trans youth belong here.” 

(Jason Alpert-Wisnia for WSN)

“NYU has shown that they care a lot about their money,” Abby Stein, a Brooklyn rabbi, told WSN. “Anything that people can do to disrupt business as usual, whether it is at the university campus, whether it is at the health campus — keeping in mind not to disrupt people who are getting care — I think that’s the most powerful.”

Ten minutes after the rally started, transgender activists, local elected officials and community organizers, including civil rights activist and former whistleblower Chelsea Manning and former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, were called into the center of a circle to give speeches. 

“Our taxpayer money is being spent on foreign policy debacles all across the world right now,” Manning said. “In South America, Central America, the Middle East, Gaza, the West Bank and now a particularly large one in Iran. So why is it that we have so much money that we don’t even know where to allocate it, but we can’t seem to find funding for healthcare for ourselves and for our community?” 

Two individuals on a balcony nearby began chanting “Viva Trump” during Manning’s speech, but Manning raised her voice and garnered cheers from the crowd. Lander, who was also recently at a rally for NYU’s faculty union, called NYU Langone’s actions “shameful” and said that “no squawking” from the federal government permits the medical center to participate in gender-based discrimination.

The demonstration comes after a rally at the Stonewall National Monument last month as groups continue to organize across the city to defend transgender rights, where hundreds of advocates congregated and chanted similar phrases.

Last week, more than 70 New York elected officials signed a letter calling on NYU Langone to “immediately reinstate” gender-affirming care for minors, citing mental health risks and human rights law. State Senator Kristen Gonzalez drafted the letter, which was addressed to Robert Grossman, vice president of NYU Langone’s Board of Trustees.

NYU Langone initially terminated at least two gender-affirming care appointments for minors around a year ago, but reinstated them after New York Attorney General Letitia James threatened legal action, claiming the decision violated anti-discrimination laws. NYU is one of more than 40 hospitals nationwide to have terminated gender-affirming care programs for minors over the past year, according to a February report. 

“We’ve seen massive capitulations by hospitals and elected officials all over the country,” transgender rights activist Lorelei Crean said. “Because it is one of the most vulnerable groups in the country, there are so few elected officials willing to defend trans youth, and it’s something that’s really important to stand up for.”

Contact at Ganga Subramanian at [email protected].