Activists protest HHS rules against gender-affirming care; 25 arrested

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Activists protest HHS rules against gender-affirming care; 25 arrested

https://www.advocate.com/health/transgender-health/protest-anti-transgender-hhs-rules 🔗 🔗

Trudy Ring (17 Feb 2026)

More than 50 activists protested Tuesday in Washington, D.C., over proposed federal rules that would effectively block access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The demonstration was organized by the Gender Liberation Movement with participation from members of ACT UP NY and ACT UP Pittsburgh. This was the final day for public comment on the rules.

Also Tuesday, 106 members of Congress sent out a letter opposing the rules.

The protesters blocked the entrance to the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, which houses the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They held a sign reading "Hands Off Our 'Mones," meaning hormones, and chanted, "HHS — RFK — Trans Youth Are No Debate" and "No Hate — No Fear — Trans Youth Are Welcome Here." Twenty-five of the protesters were arrested for blocking the entrance and are now in custody of D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed the rules in December. If finalized, the rules would bar hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors from participating in Medicare and Medicaid, prohibit federal Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program funds from covering such care nationwide, and roll back transgender-inclusive civil rights protections by excluding gender dysphoria from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Kennedy, Donald Trump, and other members of the administration oppose gender-affirming care and have gone so far as to deny the existence of trans people.