{"id":407884,"date":"2025-11-27T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/407884\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T08:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:00:31","slug":"its-just-cruel-bay-area-parents-say-sutter-health-is-set-to-halt-trans-youth-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/407884\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s Just Cruel\u2019: Bay Area Parents Say Sutter Health Is Set to Halt Trans Youth Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe refuse to stand by while Sutter pre-emptively bows to political pressure instead of standing up for our kids,\u201d Rainbow Families Action wrote.<\/p>\n

Arne Johnson, a lead advocate with the group, said parents and allies are planning a series of actions to protest the potential cessation and have asked Sutter Health leadership \u201cto clarify before this becomes a much bigger thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are offering to have those conversations because they are saying we\u2019re going to do this in thoughtful consideration, but they have not actually done that,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe are going to consider that an invitation, and assume that they are in fact going to meet with patients and families and make a real plan for their care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said the group has also reached out to California Attorney General Rob Bonta over the legality of the potential decision. State law prohibits health care discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and earlier this month, the attorney general\u2019s office issued a guidance<\/a> reminding Californians that they \u201chave the right to receive medically necessary gender-affirming care or any other medically necessary healthcare without discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another mother, Nikki, also from the East Bay, found out on her 14-year-old son\u2019s birthday that his care could end. A caregiver said they would return from vacation early to ensure Julie\u2019s son had at least one more visit before the cutoff. She also asked KQED to only use her first name.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrifying, and I haven\u2019t told my son because the news came on his birthday,\u201d Nikki said. \u201cPsychologically, it makes you not trust your doctors. It makes you not trust the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nikki is angry that the move would come after open enrollment, when the family could have joined another health care network to ensure her son could continue to receive his weekly medication.<\/p>\n

As a queer person who sought the Bay Area more than two decades ago as a place of refuge, Nikki said she is flabbergasted by the potential decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of frozen,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that I\u2019m moving forward other than making some phone calls right before the holidays, just [to] desperately see what doctors can help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie said she hasn\u2019t been able to reach any new doctors yet in her search for a new care team for her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have taken away our ability to have care that goes in alignment with my doctor\u2019s recommendation,\u201d Julie said. \u201cI have to move forward. We have to find another doctor, and who is that going to be with? I don\u2019t know of anyone who is going to take this kid. And that sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She sees this as a sign that other care for the general public could be next on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can take evidence-based care that is legal in the state of California and is medically necessary, lifesaving care for my child, what the f\u2014 is next?\u201d Julie said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a slippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe refuse to stand by while Sutter pre-emptively bows to political pressure instead of standing up for our…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":407885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-407884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115620611536927359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}