UPMC workers call out their bosses, say ending gender-affirming care for those under age 19 will result in deaths

Shortly before 4 p.m. on Sunday, four workers walked up the steps of their employer, which happens to be a health care provider and insurer with operating revenues of $28 billion, and called their bosses out for making a decision they say will kill vulnerable people.

It was a stunning display of courage by everyday folks. We spent the previous days watching GOP senators, possessing resolve as firm as a soggy hot dog bun, chuck their so-called principles and throw their constituents under the bus at the mere hint of retribution by the Trump administration. It’s a disgusting trend. Remember all those high-powered law firms and billion-dollar universities that caved weeks ago?

That’s OK. We knew all along true American grit would be never be found in the wealthy and privileged. The task of fighting the grizzly bear and saving the village always falls on working folks.

The four — UPMC behavioral health therapists Salena Benning, Katherine Anderson and Kailey Andrew and registered nurse Olivia Mincone — blasted their employer’s decision to end gender-affirming care for people under the age of 19. An audience of a few hundred attending a rally at UPMC’s Downtown headquarters on Grant Street, located in the hulking 64-story building that once provided office space to U.S. Steel executives who closed mills and laid off tens of thousands of workers, cheered when the four presented a letter calling for the health care giant to change its mind and reinstate the care. The letter was signed by 387 UPMC employees.

“I want to point out how alarming it is that no one here is surprised that the first to roll over and play dead in front of a tyrannical administration is a supposed nonprofit health care institution,” said Andrew. “If they choose to end medical care for trans kids and adults 18 years old and under, they do so voluntarily, of their own will, guided by none other than their money-making values as a tax-exempt business.”

During the rally, several members of the trans community, and their supporters, gave full-throated support to a population relentlessly attacked by President Donald Trump and his administration’s collaborators since Jan. 20. We’ll get to some of their comments in a bit, but for now we’ll let the UPMC employees speak.

Here’s Andrew again:

“This is what we call preemptive compliance,” she said. “Preemptive compliance teaches a tyrant exactly how much power they have, and UPMC is handing over the lives of its patients without the threat of any existing laws but actually in contradiction to laws that are meant to protect against this type of discrimination.

“How many human lives will it cost — or in language they’re more likely to hear — how many U.S. dollars will it cost before they’re willing to fight back? Will it be once Trump requests the cessation of health care for all queer and trans clients, regardless of age? How about all queer and trans consumers? Or will it be once he removes access to all reproductive health care? I am not willing to wait around and find out.”

Anderson said UPMC was manufacturing a crisis then dumping the problem on therapists.

“UPMC higher-ups told us to prepare for an influx, a large influx, of suicidal trans teens as a direct result of their actions,” she said. “They know this will kill people, and they are choosing to do it anyway. It was only after journalists started covering the story that we were told UPMC is supposedly planning to address this crisis, the one it created, by opening an intensive outpatient program.

“UPMC is planning to make trans youth suicidal. As staff, we have not been trained or prepared for this program. As if mental health care could ever replace vital medical care.

“We would never suggest that children taper off necessary medications and replace that care with therapy in any way, shape or form. In any other instance. UPMC higher-ups told us, though, they know this will drastically increase depression, gender dysphoria, psychosis and even suicide for trans kids and young adults forced off their necessary treatment, they do not fully know what impact this policy will have on young people.”

Mincone hit on a theme echoed by others battered by destructive corporate and political decisions: solidarity:

“Community will continue to be invaluable as we navigate the upcoming years under the Trump administration,” she said. “But today the fight is here because UPMC has acted in haste to bow down and kiss the federal administration’s feet. But it is not too late.

“UPMC, we ask you to join us in this fight. Join us in the beauty of union and its goal of standing up for life and well-being of vulnerable populations. Join us in the open and outward posture of defense and join us in anger and in love. UPMC, we are strong without you and we can be stronger with you.”

Below are comments by some of the other speakers:

Maria Montaño, who made history by becoming the first openly trans woman to serve as press secretary for a Pittsburgh mayor and is currently manager for public affairs at the Allegheny County treasurer’s office:

“From the moment my appointment was announced, I’ve been on the receiving end of vile, dangerous, hateful attacks. People felt free to dehumanize me every single day. In every comment section in our newspapers, on nearly every social media post I made, they would make jokes about my genitals. They would launch threats about what they would like to do to me if they found me using a public restroom. Many of them — many, far too many of them —openly wished me dead.

“And though the majority of these attacks, the majority of them happened on public platforms for everybody to see, not a single media outlet ever covered the sustained harassment I received. These incessant transphobic attacks on me were not met with resounding condemnation but with deafening silence.

“When our leaders cater to that hate, when they engage with people and ally themselves with the same bigots who use racist tropes about our Black leaders, who spread hate about immigrants, who fearmonger about the homeless and deny that the right of trans people even exists, we become complicit. It’s that same exact silence. It’s what allows corporations like UPMC to put their profits ahead of life-saving care for our community.

“Now is the time for us to be audacious with our hope, to raise our voices and express our joy and let UPMC and Donald Trump know that no matter what, we will always exist and that we will win.”

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Michael Airgood, former pastor at Pine Run United Methodist Church in Clairton, has taken a year off to raise funds for Methodist churches in Ukraine and is a pastor candidate at Community of Reconciliation Church in Oakland:

“When our health care providers who know the science, who understand the realities of suicidality among queer young people, make a decision like this — it is terrifying. It’s a giant leap in the wrong direction. Every person at UPMC who’s making these decisions understands the reality of the statistics. They understand that they’re condemning queer young people to death. And still they’re obeying in advance, refusing to do what is right.

“They’re doing harm. And we as a city need to hold them accountable.

“I was one of the first out queer pastors in the United Methodist Church in Western Pennsylvania,” Airgood said. “It’s been a struggle, but so many churches are moving towards full affirmation. They understand that if they want to live out the words of Jesus, that means loving their neighbor, and that means no exceptions.”

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State Rep. Jessica Benham, D-South Side, who serves as co-chair of the Pennsylvania LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus:

“We deserve better. We deserve a health care system that not only claims to be about healing but is truly about care. Care for everybody. So to UPMC, speaking to you directly, I want you to stand up for your mission to be truly about healing and about health care.

“And all the trans young people out there, no Supreme Court decision, no politician can erase the beauty of your lives. You exist. And there are so many people who are proud of you and who are proud to fight for you.”