A line must be drawn: The cowardice of historic LGBTQ+ provider Fenway Health

[Jessica_Rose]

A line must be drawn: The cowardice of historic LGBTQ+ provider Fenway Health

https://www.advocate.com/voices/fenway-health-abandons-trans-youth 🔗

Erin Reed (22 Oct 2025)

Last week, devastating news tore through the transgender community: Fenway Health — once one of the most trusted LGBTQ+ clinics in America — announced it would end gender-affirming care for anyone under 19, bowing to pressure from the Trump administration. The rationale was both cynical and cowardly. Fenway claimed it feared that Trump could revoke federal funding on a whim and that by staying in his administration's good graces, the clinic could protect its resources. In other words, rather than fight an unlawful threat, it chose appeasement. As Timothy Snyder warned in On Tyranny, this is how authoritarianism advances — not through direct orders, but through institutions that "preemptively obey." By cutting off the very trans youth who helped build its reputation today, Fenway is abandoning their mission. If the line isn't drawn here, when it's our lives on the chopping block, who will be left to draw it when it's theirs?

We've seen this kind of preemptive obedience play out across the country. Some hospitals have quietly dismantled their gender-affirming care programs rather than risk litigation — even though the few that have fought back have largely won in court. Universities have instituted discriminatory bathroom and housing bans with only a nudge from Washington, surrendering before a single lawsuit was filed. Administrators and executives, terrified of losing grants or federal favor, are pulling resources from transgender people not because they've been ordered to — but because they've guessed what might please those in power. But Fenway Health's decision to cut off transgender youth care marks a breaking point. This was a voluntary act of compliance from an institution that once stood for defiance.