We call on MultiCare and Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital to reverse their recent decision to stop new youth patients from accessing medical gender affirming care. This choice they have made 1) violates Washington state law, 2) is contrary to a preliminary injunction issued this year by a federal Judge that protects trans Americans’ access to essential medical care from President Trump’s unlawful executive orders, and 3) sends a message to every Washingtonian that Mary Bridge views the trust of trans and gender diverse youths of Tacoma as a disposable bargaining chip. In the face of this attack on our trans community and the human right to healthcare our demands are:

1. Mary Bridge and MultiCare immediately reverses their anti-trans policy.

2. In the absence of action on the part of Multi care we call on Attorney General Nick Brown, and the Washington state legislature to use every legal and rhetorical tool at their disposal to force a reversal.

3. We call on the Washington State legislature to expand healthcare access protections, specifically targeting any attempt on behalf of providers to comply in advance with anti-trans federal guidelines.

To be clear, in a recent public release Mary Bridge explicitly acknowledges the discretionary nature of their decision, contending the halt is caused by their desire to “assess...changing federal expectations” around youth gender affirming care.1 They then offer a non-sequitur about the number of Mary Bridge families using Medicaid, despite nothing having changed legally either at the state or federal level threatening the hospital’s Medicaid funding. State law is clear: the Washington State Law Against Discrimination “prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the [area] of… public accommodation”2. Furthermore, a protective injunction was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King on February 28, 2025 in the case of Washington State v. Trump that forbids implementation of trans youth care restrictions listed in Executive Orders 14168 and 14187. Given MultiCare’s choice to first understaff their gender clinic resulting in a waiting list, and now undercutting the families that patiently survived their gatekeeping by ending all support for new patients, it creates the impression they are trying to withdraw from medical gender affirming care completely in spite of the above legal protections and the critical need for a local provider in Tacoma.

Trans and gender diverse Americans have fought for decades for their rights to bodily autonomy to be recognized by the medical establishment, and thanks to their efforts this truth is now recognized by an overwhelming majority of medical associations. This step backwards by Mary Bridge enables harmful rhetoric that gender affirming care is unsafe for youth. Going through the wrong puberty as a teenager, and feeling your body and social relationships change in permanent ways you can’t control is traumatic and a deep betrayal. That is what is unsafe for youth. There is a concerted right-wing project to limit Americans’ ownership of their own bodies, of which these attempts to limit trans youths’ access to gender affirming care should be seen in concert with recent nation-wide restrictions on reproductive rights. Any organization that tries to collaborate with this reactionary effort should be viewed as betraying their commitment to their community.

Community members and healthcare workers will be rallying to fight against this decision by Mary Bridge on Friday, September 12th at Wright Park to let them know that we will not quietly stand by as this happens. We will remind them that denying healthcare access to trans youth is a violation of Washington State law no matter what the federal administration threatens, and that failure to reverse this decision will cause lasting harm to the people of Tacoma, Washington state, and Mary Bridge and MultiCare as a whole.