In Boston, Massachusetts this afternon a group of 40 protesters associated with Protect Trans Futures ratcheted up pressure on the Attorney General’s office to take action against providers who have ceased providing treatment to transgender youth, in opposition to Massachusetts nondiscrimination law.
As the workday waned, group of 40 protesters gathered in the lobby of the John W. McCormack Building in downtown Boston where the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell is located. Demonstrators held signs, chanted slogans, and publicly self-administered affirming treatments such as hormone injections, seeking to make the case that necessary healthcare should not be subject to federal whims in such a highly trans supportive state.
Lingering past the building’s 5pm closing time, a core group of activists insisted that they would not leave until the AG agreed to enforce the law and require providers to re-establish care. After a last minute attempt by the AG to defuse the situation by offering another meeting with the group was rebuffed, 9 activists from Protect Trans Futures were arrested and forcibly removed by police at 6:30pm.
In May, AG Campbell publicly affirmed that Massachussetts law forbids providers from withholding care on the basis of gender identity, and met with activists involved in the movement to restore trans care. However, she has since declined to pursue enforcement actions against providers in violation of the law. In recent weeks, this decision not to act has become increasingly contentious, with frustrated young people confronting Campbell in her public appearances, demanding change.
“The Attorney General can use whatever strategy she wants to restore healthcare for our trans siblings, so long as it works,” said Jessie De La Cruz, one of the arrested activists, according to a press release by Protect Trans Futures shortly after the arrests. “It’s her responsibility to figure out the best way to get back our rights. It’s discouraging that we’re having to bring her policy proposals and create plans on her behalf, but whatever she’s supposedly doing now isn’t working. We’re still being denied care in one of the country’s most liberal states. If Andrea Campbell has a plan better than ours, then I would love to see it.”
Providers of trans care have felt increasing pressure from the Trump administration, which has employed a mix of empty threats and coercive regulatory actions to intimidate providers, is ideologically comitted to eliminating transgender people due to their belief that sex is assigned at birth and can never be changed. Activists say the decision by providers to restrict prescriptions of commonly used drugs when treating young people with gender dysphoria, and only those young people, breaks state law. Gender identity has been included under nondiscrimination protections in the state since 2012.
According to Protect Trans Futures the 9 activists were in the process of being released by police within an hour of their arrest. We will update this story if further information about the arestees becomes available.
