We had a big win this week for Michigan’s transgender youth. The state’s largest medical system, Corewell Health, reversed course and will again provide gender-affirming care for young people under 19. This came after we, and other advocacy organizations, urged the health system to continue providing this lifesaving care.
Here’s how our win went down – and why this victory is so important:
- Jan. 28 - Trump issued an Executive Order (EO), trying to direct federal agencies to withhold federal funding from medical providers and institutions that provide gender-affirming care for people under age 19.
- Feb. 7 - Corewell Health announced it will stop providing gender-affirming care for new patients under 19.
- Feb. 7 - Attorney General Dana Nessel issued guidance warning that denying gender-affirming care to young people could be a violation of the state's anti-discrimination laws.
- Feb. 11 - We, along with dozens of advocacy groups, signed an open letter urging Corewell Health to reverse course, reminding the healthcare system that gender-affirming care is lifesaving, essential, evidence-based, and that transgender youth would suffer without it.
- Feb. 12 - Corewell Health announced that it will again provide gender-affirming care to people under 19.
- Feb. 13 - Following the ACLU suing the Trump administration on Feb. 4 over this EO, a federal district court issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of it.
So, why is this victory so important? It is a roadmap on how to fight civil liberties violations by the Trump administration.
We must call on our state institutions, elected officials, and leaders to oppose the Trump administration’s chaos-inducing, unilateral edicts, including executive orders like this one that cruelly attack transgender children, violate the Constitution, and undermine the separation of powers and checks and balances so central to our democracy.
We must not concede our power and call on others to do the same. Period.
Together, we win.
