Opinion: Baystate Throws Trans Kids Under the Bus 

A group of concerned and impacted citizens have recently conducted their 3rd and 4th protest art installations in Greenfield and Northampton, in opposition to Baystate Health’s decision to discontinue gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors — a decision made before any law required it, before any court upheld it, and one that has since been rendered even more indefensible by federal rulings in favor of trans youth. 

The art installations include a giant painted canvas representation of a Baystate Health bus, with stuffed children’s clothing arranged beneath it and the words “Baystate Bows to Trump – Throws Trans Kids Under the Bus.”  — a visceral representation of what Baystate has done: it has thrown trans kids under the bus to protect its bottom line. The bus was designed to expose the harm in Baystate’s decision and raise awareness about the importance of gender-affirming care for trans youth. 

The first day of action was April 25, when the installation was brought to Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Health’s corporate offices, in Springfield. Baystate’s response was to ask peaceful citizens (many who were Baystate patients themselves) who were advocating for health care for vulnerable children, to leave the premises. Later they issued a statement attempting to justify their abandonment of trans youth by suggesting that helping find them care elsewhere is enough. Last weekend many were surprised to see Baystate set up a booth at Hampshire Pride, certainly not an appropriate place for an organization causing harm to trans youth. 

On May 6, the group responsible for the art installation decided it was time to bring the bus back by installing it at additional Baystate locations in response to Baystate’s inadequate justification for their decision and unwillingness to acknowledge the harm they are causing. 

The protest art, accompanied by a small group who planned and built it, appeared at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6  outside Baystate Franklin Medical Center. Those involved in the planning and building of the bus read a statement and demands and held a speakout, during which several participants shared personal stories about why this issue is important to them. 

Baystate’s response was to send security to ask them to leave. An organizer explained that the group was made up of  peaceful community members and Baystate patients and would not enter the hospital or interfere with hospital business, but had come to express disappointment in Baystate’s decision to end gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth and invited anyone from Baystate to come listen. Instead, Baystate chose to call the police. 

When the police arrived, an organizer pointed out that though Baystate is private property, many of us access it often for health care, and were surprised to have the police called on us simply because our message was making Baystate uncomfortable. “We want people to be able to access  their health care,” organizer, Ali Wicks-Lim said, “We just also believe that trans and non-binary kids are people.” 

When asked whether the police would arrest protestors if they remained on Baystate property, they said it would not be their preference, but they would have to follow Baystate administrators’ directions. The group, having accomplished what they came to do, chose to pack up and head to a second location, a standout in front of Baystate Health and Wellness on King Street in Northampton. In that location, the office was closed, and no law enforcement was involved. 

Mara Levi and Ali Wicks-Lim, who co-led the organizing for the planning and building of the bus and the installations of it as protest art issued the following statement, following Wednesday’s actions and Baystate’s response:  

We understand that protest art delivers an uncomfortable message. We feel that denying life-saving care to trans and non-binary youth should be uncomfortable. The fact that Baystate chose to address their discomfort with our message by engaging law enforcement to silence patients and community members advocating for health care for youth is deeply disappointing and concerning. At a time when we need our health care institutions to center patient care and all of our institutions to reject the agenda of a fascist government, Baystate is clearly bowing to the Trump administration. Now it is up to the people to decide whether or not they will tolerate that.

The full public statement follows.

We, a gathering of adults concerned with protecting the rights and the care of trans youth, are here today to expose the impact of Baystate Health’s indefensible and premature decision to end gender-affirming care for trans youth, and to respond to Baystate’s claim that they are “working with the impacted patients and their families to transfer their care to a trusted healthcare organization in our region, or another provider that our patients and their families choose.” 

In response we would like to say this: 

Our concern is not only for the trans youth Baystate is currently abandoning but for the many patients to come, who will not be able to access the care they need at the hospitals and health care centers their families use. 

When the largest healthcare organization in Western MA denies gender affirming care to trans youth it stigmatizes the care trans kids desperately need. Many uninformed families will not access this care for their children because of the message Baystate is sending in bowing to Trump and discontinuing it. 

Other families will not access this life saving care simply because they can’t. Even if other health care centers could absorb this need there are very real logistical and financial barriers to accessing care outside of your immediate community. 

As the largest healthcare organization in Western MA Baystate should be setting the standard for care, not shifting their responsibility toward small organizations that have nowhere near the funding and capacity to meet the needs of so many transgender youth. 

We call upon Baystate Health to:

• Immediately reverse its decision and restore gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors
• Issue a public apology to the families it abandoned
• Affirm its commitment to evidence-based, non-discriminatory care for all patients.
• Immediately cease participation in Pride season events until it’s policies  are in alignment with the needs and rights of trans youth. 

We are unified and unwavering in our support for the rights of trans youth to receive the health care they need and we will not stop exposing injustice and advocating for corrective action until our health care systems reflect the needs and values of the people in the communities they serve. 

Background
Baystate Health, the largest hospital system in western Massachusetts, stopped providing gender-affirming care to minors in February 2026, citing financial threats from the Trump administration. But here is what Baystate will not tell you: they did not have to do this. Massachusetts has a shield law protecting gender-affirming care providers. The state has mandated coverage for this care. And multiple court challenges to the federal funding threats were already underway when Baystate made its choice. As one parent put it: “Maybe this is naive, but I didn’t think that would happen in Massachusetts — and certainly not preemptively.” 

That instinct was right. A coalition of 22 states — including Massachusetts — subsequently secured a federal court order permanently blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to threaten healthcare providers for treating youth with gender dysphoria.

The court found that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lacked the legal authority to issue the declaration, and that HHS’s actions were arbitrary and capricious. Thejudge condemned the federal government’s efforts to limit the care as “wanton” and found it did not follow proper administrative procedures. In the words of the court: “Secretary Kennedy’s unlawful declaration harmed children. This case illustrates that when a leader acts without authority and in the absence of the rule of law, he acts with cruelty.”

Baystate acted in February. The courts struck down the threat in March. Baystate chose fear over its patients — and chose it too soon.

Gender-affirming care for minors — which can include mental health counseling, puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and in rare cases surgery — is considered medically necessary by major professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society. Those groups say the treatments can reduce gender dysphoria and improve mental health outcomes, including lowering the risk of depression and suicide.
 

The human cost of Baystate’s decision is not abstract. One mother of a former Baystate patient said that before her child came out as a transgender girl, she had been severely depressed, battling suicidal thoughts — and that once the right path was found, things started to turn around.These are the children Baystate abandoned.

Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein said it plainly: “Decisions about a young person’s medical care belong in the exam room, guided by patients, families, and clinicians — not by politicians in Washington.” 

I agree. And I would add: not by hospital administrators calculating their Medicaid exposure before the courts have even ruled.

Ali Wicks Lim is a former resident of Amherst and a member of the ad hoc LGBTQIA+ Caucus of Amherst