LGBT

It has been very hard to navigate this. So many of the advances the trans community has made over the last decade- plus have been around health care access...which in the US depends on federal funding and policies strongly influenced by Washington DC. And for people outside the health care system, it is hard to understand how precarious things have been, to the point where if DC cuts off money (reimbursement, in the short term) -- or even just delays things for a month or so, health care centers would literally have to shut their doors within a month or two. It's agonizing -- including for healthcare providers. No one gets into LGBTQ health to make money - they do it because they know how much it matters.

There are a very few freestanding clinics like the one referred to in the article. But there is no way for those to serve all who need care. Other alternatives trans folks are told to find are doctors who are not part of group practices -- a vanishing breed.

For a more macro perspective, below I've linked an excellent article with extensive links about how those behind the policies enacted by the Trump administration have been ticking off their checklists, using every lever they can to shut down trans youth medical care. But not only that - trans supportive mental health care is already gone in many states for youth. Ancillary services are gone or imperiled (cf the suicide prevention services targeted early on in Trump 2). Book bans have a different sort of pervasive effect. Online age restrictions and age verification (for all ages) combine with reclassification of age-appropriate LGBTQ information (as "pornographic," per Project 2025) to cut out factual information that saves lives. And I could go on. Trans adults are already being affected, with a goal of making our lives unliveable.

Anyway, here is the Guardian article. Follow each link if you can.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/17/children-gender-affirming-trans-care-trump

ShazzieB, a young person related to my partner was able to get care as a minor in Chicago. It was everything, and now this young person is no longer a minor, but a successful athlete and small business owner, on the way to college and further successes. These battles are worth fighting. And God bless JB Pritzker, whose family includes trans people. I wish all Dems were as supportive.