As Trump erases transgender rights, CT provider makes changes to avoid scrutiny

Hartford Courant – Thursday, June 19, 2025
By Kaitlin McCallum

As transgender rights crumble across the United States, Connecticut residents continue to cling to the premise of state’s rights and the promised protections of their elected officials, while hoping for fortitude of their providers.

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled to uphold a state ban on gender-affirming care for minors Wednesday, signaling that it would allow states to enact such bans. The court, in a 6-3 decision, found that Tennessee’s landmark case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, does not discriminate based on sex and transgender status and thus does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling is the latest win for those seeking to ban gender-affirming care and a loss for those who say the care is life-saving and medically recommended as best practice for transgender people.

Amid the evolving lay of the land, a Connecticut hospital told employees it would will remove public-facing language and programs about DEI and gender-affirming care due to “recent federal mandates and heightened scrutiny.” It includes ending use of “visual symbols, logos, event promotions, and communication campaigns associated with any DEI-specific themes, initiatives, or activities.”

Medical organizations that endorse age-appropriate gender-affirming care include American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association, the Endocrine Society, American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Nursing, and the American College of Physicians.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who has filed a slew of lawsuits seeking to block what he says are unlawful actions by President Donald Trump, condemned the ruling and vowed he would continue to fight to protect transgender residents and their rights.

“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court will harm kids, plain and simple. Gender-affirming care is lifesaving for many individuals, and for a court to uphold bans on medically necessary care to anyone sets a dangerous precedent. These extremely personal and sensitive decisions should be made only by an individual and their doctor without any input or interference from unqualified judges and politicians,” Tong said.

“As the Dobbs decision did with abortion, this ruling risks creating two Americas: one where access to high quality, lifesaving care is protected, and one where discrimination and misinformation restricts that access. So I want to be clear – while today’s ruling is a setback for the rights of transgender youth in certain states across the country, gender-affirming care is still legal and accessible here in Connecticut, and my office will continue to fight for and protect transgender youth and their families.”

The Trump administration and Republican state lawmakers across the country have sought to end protection from discrimination in the workplace and beyond for transgender people; their right to use bathrooms and facilities matching their gender; their right to receive medically recommended care; and on passports, licenses and in schools to be identified by their lived gender and name. Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill would end Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care and the Trump administration announced Wednesday it would also end service of the national suicide prevention line for LGBTQ+ youth.

An early executive order couched in the premise of protecting women and ensuing compliance on federal websites even decreed transgender, nonbinary and intersex people do not exist, saying that the government will recognize only male and female, based on sex.

“The main problem with a strong dichotomy is that there are intermediate cases that push the limits and ask us to figure out exactly where the dividing line is between males and females. And that’s often a very difficult problem, because sex can be defined a number of ways,” biology sex expert Arthur Arnold at the University of California, Los Angeles, was quoted telling Nature, in the Medical Daily article “Biologists Say Gender Expands Across A Spectrum, Rather Than Simply Boy And Girl” in 2015, long before gender identity became a political issue.

According to the ACLU, which has represented transgender people in state and federal suits, 25 states have enacted bans on gender-affirming care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy for gender dysphoric and transgender youth. As a result, 100,000 transgender youth now live in states where they are unable to obtain care.

Some youth, unable to obtain care, have committed suicide or suffered mental health problems. A pair of 2024 studies – one from national advocacy nonprofit The Trevor Project and another from the University of Washington School of Public Health – found that depression and suicidality of youth increased in states that had enacted gender-affirming care bans.

Others have moved to Connecticut, where the state’s shield law protects patients and families seeking gender-affirming care as well as providers administering it.

Still, access to care is tenuous in Connecticut. An executive order, “Protecting Children from Medical and Surgical Mutilation,” on Jan. 28, threatened to defund gender-affirming care providers by stripping them of research or educational grants. Enforcement of that order was blocked by a federal judge in California on June 9, but legal challenges continue.

A handful of Connecticut school districts have been threatened with the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding if they do not change current policies that allow transgender students to participate in sports and use facilities matching their gender identity. The policies align with state law and with the policy of the Connecticut Association of Schools’ governing body for interscholastic sports, CIAC, which seeks not to exclude students based on their gender identity.

Though town and school representatives in those districts have reached out to both Gov. Ned Lamont and Tong for legal assistance, none has been announced.

And after a wave of gender-care clinic closures across the country last week, rumors of Connecticut providers discontinuing care circulated among the tight-knit community of families raising transgender children in this state.

Though surgical treatment for transgender patients under 19 is unavailable in Connecticut, a small handful of hospitals and clinics provide counseling, puberty blockers and hormone therapy as deemed appropriate by families and doctors.

A couple of small medical offices have stopped providing care for minors and others have warned they may have to stop accepting new patients in the future.

Fears that existing care may evaporate were stoked last week when Connecticut Children’s sent a letter to employees detailing a shift in approach to DEI and gender-affirming care.

The letter, attributed to Larry Milan, senior vice president of Human Relations, says though Connecticut Children’s “commitment has not changed,” the hospital system will remove public-facing language and programs about DEI and gender-affirming care due to “recent federal mandates and heightened scrutiny.”

“To protect the future of our organization and the critical federal funding that sustains our work, we are asking all departments to pause the promotion or public display of materials, messaging, or activities that could unintentionally invite questions about our compliance with these federal regulations,” the letter said.

The letter goes on to vaguely mention changes to Connecticut Children’s gender care program. Questions about what services will continue to be offered were not answered after several days.

“In parallel with this effort, we are also making specific adjustments to how we deliver gender affirming medical and surgical care. Recent federal guidance has placed renewed scrutiny on the provision of gender affirming services, especially those funded by Medicare. To remain compliant, Connecticut Children’s will continue to provide psychological support and care coordination for patients in our Gender Program.”

The letter states that such services will no longer be promoted on Connecticut Children’s website.

“Some examples of how this guidance is taking shape: we have made the difficult decisions to stop using ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ in our language, pause our DEI Speaker Series, suspend use of branded cultural awareness Zoom backgrounds, and refrain from using the Pride logo or related materials in our communications at this time,” it says.

Connecticut Children’s CEO Jim Shmerling canceled an interview Wednesday due to a last-minute scheduling conflict and did not provide comment.

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