Mount Sinai Health System becomes the latest hospital system to officially capitulate to the demands of Trump’s Justice Department. On Friday, the hospital announced that it had chosen to settle a months-long legal battle with the DoJ over their demands for all records relating to transgender healthcare.
The settlement requires that the hospital cease providing gender-affirming care for youth, as well as pay a fine and allocate $2 million to provide detransition options for previous Mount Sinai patients. The hospital claims that this move was meant to protect trans patients from having their information released to the DoJ.
Earlier last week, New York AG Letitia James sued the Trump administration over their rule to block medicaid funding to gender affirming care for youth, and, following the announcement of this settlement, her office has stated it would be reviewing the settlement.
Earlier this week, the DoJ filed a lawsuit against Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools for allegedly violating the Family Educational Rights and the Privacy Act and Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment by “facilitating secret ‘gender transitions’ for children at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent.” This suit comes after months of pressure from the DoJ against the school district.
At the core of the suit is KCKPS’ policy regarding transgender students. The policy empowers schools to make appropriate accommodations for trans students in regards to things like pronouns and bathroom use. Additionally, the policy allows schools to, on a case-by-case basis, elect not to inform parents that their child may be trans.
If the lawsuit succeeds, KCKPS would be at risk of losing nearly $7 million in federal funding and the ability of schools across the country to protect trans students from abusive transphobic environments at home would be at risk.
The same day the lawsuit was filed in Kansas, a judge in California threw out a DoJ lawsuit against the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports. In the suit, the DoJ argued that California was violating the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX by allowing transgender students to play sports on teams aligning with their gender identity.
On Monday, however, U.S. District Court Judge Cynthia Valenzuela ruled against the DoJ, throwing out the suit. In a statement to Erin in the Morning, Bria Nelson of Lawyers for Good Government said of the ruling, ”the federal government cannot use shifting agency interpretations to spring retroactive conditions on states and pull their funding for maintaining trans-inclusive policies.”
The DoJ has said that it intends to file an appeal challenging the ruling.
