Although we knew that once The Orange Man moved back into the White House, life would never be the same. We witnessed his ceaseless torment of lies in every rambling, semi-incoherent speech he made, but we never imagined that the convicted felon would be able to destroy major swathes of our democracy in such a short time and almost unchallenged.
QUEERGURU took some comfort that for most of the year we are based in Massachusetts, one of the bluest states in the country….. we even have the first elected lesbian Governor. But that fact was enough to shoot us to the top of The Orange Man’s targets for revenge and annihilation. Inspired by childhood playground bullying tactics, he is hitting out at anyone/anybody whom he deems has done him wrong, regardless of legality and morality. And although it’s one thing to take aim at his perceived political opponents, it’s totally another thing to destroy other people and organizations who get caught in his crossfire, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT LITERALLY IS A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH!
Last week Bostons 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 Orange Man’sadministration. The rationale was both cynical and cowardly. The Clinic had feared that he 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. 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?
This disgraceful move was not totally unexpected as 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.
Why the Fenway case cuts deeper than most is that it was founded in 1971 by activists determined to care for LGBTQ+ people experiencing healthcare discrimination,and it began as a grassroots “drop-in” clinic — run not by corporate executives or government bureaucrats, but by volunteers and community organizers serving those society left behind. In its earliest days, Fenway wasn’t buoyed by tens of millions in federal dollars or institutional prestige; it was powered by compassion and defiance. Its founders understood what it meant to be abandoned by the state. They built an institution that drew a line for the most vulnerable, refusing to let government hostility define who was worthy of care.
We believe that Fenway has totally underestimated the resolve of our community that built it, and the outpouing of support it can depend on. It totally distresses us to witness them cower so quickly like servants who believed their groveling behavior will be enough to spare them. IT WILL NOT, and its clear to even the most casual observer that THIS ADMINISTRATION WILL NOT STOP AT TRANS YOUTH. They will come for every marginalized population they treat, every program that challenges its vision of who deserves care.
| IF YOU ARE AS ANGRY AS WE ARE, PLEASE MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD BY WRITING TO THE CEO + |
Comments
One response to “SHAME ON Boston’s FENWAY HEALTH CLINIC for appeasing The Orange Man by ending its Care Program for Trans Youth”
Yeah, this is a swing-and-a-miss for me. I’m a patient at Fenway and have been for 25 years, ever since they were the small drop-in clinic mentioned above. I don’t know if the letter they sent out to their patients was something you had a chance to look over, but bottom line, they’re 100% not wrong that they are in the MAGA cross-hairs, nor are they unreasonably fearful that continuing to provide trans-healthcare to minors will result in a yanking of their funding. Fenway is, to date, the only healthcare organization which intentionally serves the queer community. There is nothing else like it. While it’s absolutely heartbreaking that they have to, for now, and with strong statements of it not being by choice, cease care for minors, they’re not wrong that it’s necessary. I for one do not want my psychiatric and sexual health care to be dependent on the “overwhelming outpouring” of donations from the private sector. What’s more, TG youth might represent a stricken demographic (i.e. trans people are at present so at risk it’s painful to even consider) but they represent that group as existing within a privileged demographic (i.e. middle-class suburbanites in MA who have supportive families and aren’t working for a living to support themselves). Fenway serves the homeless, those who survived the AIDS crisis, and so many more, whose circumstances are literally life-and-death (as in, they don’t get their meds, they die, rather than, they don’t get their meds, and they *want* to die). This is a heartbreaking, and temporary, strategy. There are a lot of reasons to criticize Fenway (their absorption of grass-roots legacy AIDS activism orgs, for example), but this just isn’t one of them. Their hands are tied–unless you think we should murder some homeless people so the youth feel supported (while still not receiving care, bc the hospital would close)