Three weeks from now, I’ll be getting a gender-affirming surgery from NYU Langone. For trans people in New York City, NYU Langone has a reputation as one of the best — if not the best — places to receive trans-related healthcare in the city.
I’m also an NYU alumni and, during my time at the university, I learned the unfortunate truth that the entire organization is a microcosm for the country at large. There might be great faculty, great surgeons, great opportunities, but they are overshadowed by an infrastructure that exists to reward the most powerful and uphold conservative values. The latest example of these practices occurred this week when NYU Langone CEO Robert I. Grossman made the cowardly choice to comply with Trump’s illegal anti-trans executive order even though it has not been enforced by any legislation yet, halting healthcare at NYU Langone to trans people under 19 years old, effective immediately.
Hundreds of people gathered last night at St. Vartan Park a block away from NYU Langone hospital to protest this decision. Organized by NYC-DSA, speakers included teachers, doctors, and several young trans people speaking on behalf of themselves and their peers.
Many people pointed out that Grossman’s decision is in violation of New York state anti-discrimination law. But Clark Wolff Hamel, acting executive director of PFLAG NYC, made sure that this talking point didn’t distract from the larger issue. “Institutions in New York have a legal obligation to comply with state law and ignore this heinous executive order,” he said. “But trans young people are not just in New York and regardless of their protections they deserve the right to live, they deserve the right to this healthcare. These executive orders are not just illegal and unconstitutional, they are inhumane.”
Dr. Michael Zingman, a second year child psychiatry fellow at NYU Langone, echoed this sentiment. “This decision is not only a moral and medical failure — it’s a betrayal of our patients and our profession,” he said. “By gutting this care, NYU is sending a message. They do not care about patient autonomy, they do not care about evidence-based medicine, and they do not care about the doctors they train.”
Pigeon, one of the young trans people who spoke and a member of NYU Students for a Democratic Society, made the astute point of connecting this decision with broader NYU practices. “NYU has long held with its participation in war profiteering and genocide that the lives of children are less a priority than the lining of its own pockets,” Pigeon said. “This latest decision is yet another extension of this sentiment.”
Beth Boyle Machlan, a faculty member at NYU and mother of a trans man, also connected this decision to a broader culture at NYU. “Over the last 18 months, I’ve watched my workplace devolve into a militarized zone of walls and checkpoints, a place where students and faculty are punished for free speech and frozen out of decision-making,” she said before stating that she still hadn’t imagined this sort of direct attack on trans people. “NYU Langone, a facility that reported over one billion in profits in 2023, announced to the world that dollars and donors are more important than healthcare.”
She went on to discuss the gap between NYU’s reputation and the reality: “So many people come from all over the world to NYU because they believe at the heart of Greenwich Village, so close to Stonewall, they can finally and safely be themselves.”
Molly, a trans freshman at NYU, spoke of this directly, saying, “One of the reasons I actually chose to go to NYU was specifically because they were known for how accessible their gender-affirming care program was to their students.” She went on to say that her disillusionment with NYU has included an education on their history: “There’s precedent for NYU’s behavior too with NYU refusing to allow students to fundraise for gay rights leading to the occupation of Weinstein Hall in 1970 which ended with the Sylvia Rivera being dragged out by the NYPD on NYU’s watch.”
“I may be young myself,” Molly also said, “But I still didn’t have access to those resources at that young of an age and because of that it led me down a path of testosterone-fueled puberty. Irreversible damage, as some may call it. No trans child should have to go through that.” In addition to having my favorite zinger of the night referencing Abigail Shrier’s transphobic book, Molly also made an excellent point. People are quick to discuss the imagined harm of cis kids having a trans puberty, but not the very real harm of trans kids having a cis puberty.
Another young trans person, Lorelai, spoke about the impact of a different anti-trans Trump executive order. In reference to receiving a passport with an X gender marker, they said, “When I received it in the mail, it was one of the happiest days of my life.” As someone who has thought about gender markers primarily as a safety issue — more concerned with a trans person’s documents not matching their appearance — I was moved and changed by Lorelai’s words. “To most people it’s just a letter on a document,” they continued, “but to me it’s a legal recognition of my existence. Having that X meant I was recognized as a human, not just a political issue and talking point.”
Lorelai then spoke about the direct impact of NYU Langone’s decision: “My friend hadn’t heard the news yet and she started freaking out telling me she had an appointment there scheduled for a month from now and asked if that would still happen. I told them I don’t know. But we’re here today demanding that it will.”
So what can we do? Well, we can continue to email and call Robert I. Grossman’s office [email: [email protected]; phone: (212) 263-3269.] We can send a message via NYC-DSA’s action portal. And we can continue to protest.
Actor and activist Cynthia Nixon spoke as a lifelong New Yorker and the mother of a trans man who had his top surgery at NYU Langone. “This is where I’m planting my flag,” she said. “I want to tell the people of NYU as I told you I just live a few blocks away. You’re going to be seeing a lot of me. And you’re going to be seeing a lot of this amazing crowd of people and there are a lot of people here today and we are mad as hell.”
Grossman and anyone else involved in this decision have underestimated how eager people are to fight back against the Trump administration and this slew of bigoted executive orders. It can feel like there’s little to do to stop Trump and Elon Musk and everyone else in Washington, but with their early compliance NYU Langone has become a practical action item for many angry people. To quote queer council member Tiffany Cabán, “The first rule against tyranny is you do not obey in advance.”
But this is just the beginning. Even if NYU Langone reverses their decision, even if these executive orders are ruled unconstitutional, the federal government and the Republican Party have chosen trans people as one of their scapegoats, and most of the Democratic Party has no interest in fighting back.
Young trans people shouldn’t have to be the ones fighting on their own behalf, but they’re doing it anyway. Mina, another young trans person who is part of NYC Youth 4 Trans Rights, announced a trans visibility day march on March 31. If he has to be out there fighting, the least we can do is be out there alongside him.
The rally ended with impassioned words from Freya, another young trans person. “I have been on estrogen since I was 14,” she said. “And I know that I’m very privileged to be able to say that. But in the same breath, I can say that I’m scared for myself, for my own healthcare, and for all the other people like me… don’t let them win.”
NYU Langone must reverse this decision immediately. They must stand with their patients and doctors instead of politicians and donors. Don’t let them win. Don’t let them win.
Read more of Autostraddle’s recent political coverage:
- What will Trump’s executive orders actually do?
- Debunking every part of Trump’s gender-affirming care executive order.
- The government is deleting vital LGBTQ health resources and data.
- Trump is fighting imaginary indoctrination in public schools with indoctrination of his own.
- Trump’s attacks on gender-affirming care for trans youth will be challenged in the courts.
- How can you stay organized and prepared when going through the hellish process of updating your documents as a trans person right now?
- Why does Trump want to remove trans people from the military?
