People gather on the steps of Springfield City Hall to protest Baystate Health’s decision to end gender-affirming medical care.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
SPRINGFIELD — A small but vocal group of people, sporting protest signs and wearing pink, white and blue transgender flags as capes, attended a rally on the steps of Springfield City Hall on April 26.
They were there to oppose a move by Baystate Health to end certain care for transgender patients under 18 years old.
In February, Baystate Health notified families of patients under age 18 who were receiving gender-affirming medical care, such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, that it would no longer offer these treatments. It referred these patients to TransHealth in Northampton.
The change was made after a December 2025 announcement by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that hospitals providing the gender-affirming care to patients under 18 would no longer receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Despite the directive being under regulatory review, Baystate Health and Boston-based Fenway Health, complied in advance. On April 18, U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai issued a ruling that the federal government’s attempt to withhold Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements is illegal. Baystate has not yet reversed its decision.
The rally was organized by Trans Alliance, a group that formed as a result of Baystate Health’s decision. Organizer Joseph Bonilla said the company’s behavior was “institutional cowardice and institutional silence.” He added, “We will hold Baystate accountable.”
Sasha Moresmith condemned Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell for not forcing Baystate Health to reverse its decision, despite a 2022 state law expanding protection for reproductive and gender-affirming care. She praised New York Attorney General Letitia James for pushing back when New York University Langone Health made a similar move. Another River Valley Socialists of America organizer, Hazel Alexis Fogarty, said the group delivered hundreds of printed letters to Campbell’s office that urged her to act on this issue. Fogarty said they were told Campbell is aware of the situation and is “looking into it.”
Jenn Northcut, the mother of two queer children, moved from Texas to the Berkshires because to protect her children and provide them with care. But when she asked her local doctor about hormone replacement for her transgender son, “They acted like I had said something really unethical,” she said. The family was referred to Baystate, an hour from their home. Then, days before her teenage son was scheduled to begin testosterone treatments, she found out she would have to transfer to Transhealth and make an even longer drive for care.
“Massachusetts, in my mind, was synonymous with freedom and dignity,” Northcut said of her decision to move her family but said the state was letting them down.
Seeing Rainbows Executive Director maayan nuri héd, a trans woman and mother of a trans child, called out what she sees as a double standard. She said Baystate is still delivering hormone replacement therapy for people experiencing menopausal symptoms and for cis gendered youth with hormonal conditions, both types of gender-affirming care.
“Baystate never had to cancel gender-affirming care,” héd said. Her family, who also live in the Berkshires, was referred to Transhealth. She likened it to a restaurant refusing to serve someone but telling them another restaurant 30 miles away would. Unfortunately, she said, “We don’t have other options.”
héd said she understands that Baystate was concerned about its finances and needs to look out for their patients as a whole, but asked, “At what point is a minority large enough that you care about canceling their care?”
