The OutCenter Southwest Michigan and a coalition of partners from across the state have issued an open letter to Corewell Health’s Board of Directors and executive leadership after Corewell announced it’s no longer providing gender-affirming care for new minor patients.
In a statement, Corewell says, in part, “At this time, we are not beginning any new hormone therapy regimens for minor patients seeking gender affirming care.” The OutCenter’s Mary Jo Schnell tells us she was disappointed to hear about the policy change and started talking with partners about how to respond.
“I thought it was shameful, and so partly I thought, ‘OK, who can I talk to about this and how can we as a statewide network do something about this to hopefully get them to reconsider?’ So I reached out to some contacts that I haven’t quite well, haven’t heard back,” Schnell said.
Schnell says with a new administration in the White House, the transgender community is the first to be targeted for discrimination because they’re the least well-known and understood. She’s afraid Corewell’s decision to limit gender-affirming care to minors seeking it will set an example for other systems.
Schnell says Corewell “gave up” easily following an executive order from President Donald Trump threatening to cut off federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to people under the age of 19.
“So how are they going to respond to an executive order about women’s health care? What about people with HIV? Who’s next?”
Schnell says the Corewell move may be a violation of the state’s civil rights law. She tells us she’s part of a panel that met with Corewell leaders regularly to discuss how the system could better treat the LGBTQ community, and they’ve had positive discussions. Now she’s not sure what’s next.
In the open letter to Corewell, The OutCenter and partners express their “unequivocal and wholehearted opposition to Corewell’s recent actions.”
Corewell’s full statement, as sent to The Detroit Free Press is below:
“At this time, we are not beginning any new hormone therapy regimens for minor patients seeking gender affirming care. We do not perform gender-affirming surgeries on minors. Our team will continue monitoring federal changes to rules and regulations. We remain committed to providing the highest quality health care to all the patients we serve.”
The open letter from The OutCenter and its coalition is below:
