Protesters Rally in Downtown State College to Defend Access to Gender-Affirming Care for Youth

Advocates gathered Sunday in downtown State College to protest restrictions on gender-affirming care, calling on lawmakers, medical institutions and the public to defend the rights of transgender people.

The event, organized by Centre LGBT+, drew community members, allies and activists holding signs and distributing QR codes with letters urging change. Demonstrators criticized recent policies, at federal, state and local levels, that they say strip away transgender people’s ability to access essential medical care.

“These are policies and orders targeting the ability of transgender people to live with dignity, authenticity and to fulfill their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Centre LGBT+ board member Michel Lee Garrett said. “Gender-affirming care is well researched, validated medical best practice that is endorsed by every major medical association in the country. Access to gender-affirming care saves lives.”

Lee Garrett said misinformation about such care, especially for youth, fuels fear and hostility. She noted that most transgender youth do not undergo surgery but instead may receive treatments such as puberty blockers, which have long been used for cisgender children experiencing early puberty, hormone treatment or counseling.

Centre LGBT+ used Sunday’s protest to deliver three sets of letters to the groups: Centre County state legislators, urging opposition to any bills limiting trans youth medical access; professional medical associations, thanking them for supporting evidence-based care; and regional health systems, including Mount Nittany Health, Penn State Health, UPMC and Penn Medicine, urging them to reverse their decisions to halt gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 19.

Multiple major hospitals and health care systems around the country have announced they would curtail or restrict gender-affirming care for youth as the Trump administration has undertaken several measures targeting providers offering such care.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was among Democratic officials from 16 states and the District of Columbia who filed a lawsuit on Friday claiming that unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Beyond the protest, Centre LGBT+ serves as a safe space and advocacy center in the State College area, offering support and resources, such as social and support groups, a gender-affirming clothing closet and ongoing advocacy at local government meetings, to name a few. 

For Lee Garrett, the fight is personal. Having lived in State College for 12 years, she says she’s endured harassment and self-hatred growing up in rural Pennsylvania. Her life changed, she said, when she embraced her identity as a transgender woman and began her medical transition.

“I went from hating myself and wanting to die to finally learning to love myself and wanting to live,” Lee Garrett said. “Being able to access my gender-affirming care literally saved my life.”

She said visibility is a powerful tool in pushing back against prejudice.

“Visibility is not a policy solution in and of itself, but it illuminates darkness,” she said. “It shows people they are not alone, that it is possible to live and thrive as queer and trans people.”