Weill Cornell Medicine removed a public statement from its website on Monday that affirmed its commitment to providing gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The move follows an executive order from President Donald Trump directing federal entities to withhold funding from medical providers that offer gender-affirming treatments to individuals under 19 years old.
On March 9, 2022, Weill Cornell Medicine issued “A pledge of support for transgender youth,” a public statement explaining that the medical institution would continue to provide “gender-affirming care to [its] transgender youth” despite “politically motivated calls to criminalize gender-affirming” healthcare. They referenced statements “targeting” transgender youths' healthcare, such as those by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“Rather than remaining silent in the face of divisiveness and angry rhetoric, we will strengthen our resolve to continue providing gender-affirming care to our transgender youth,” Weill Cornell Medicine wrote in their now-removed statement. “[We will] leverage the power of medical associations and institutions to fight against legislation which threatens their physical and emotional health by limiting access to medically necessary, and potentially lifesaving, care.”
Despite issuing this statement in 2022, Weill Cornell Medicine has recently joined hospitals around New York in removing public statements explaining their commitment to providing gender-affirming services to transgender youth. This change also follows New York University Langone Health’s decision to cancel transgender care appointments for minors, raising alarms about the impact of the executive order on transgender healthcare access in New York State and beyond.
Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University are both assessing the implications of the recent executive orders before issuing further guidance.
“A letter dated March 2022 was removed from our website as we evaluate the new executive order, state and federal laws and regulations and the New York Attorney General’s recent guidance,” a Weill Cornell Medicine spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Sun. “We are working through this developing situation. As always, our priority is to serve all our patients in a compassionate and responsible way.”
A Cornell spokesperson similarly wrote in a statement to The Sun, “University leadership continues to evaluate how new executive orders affect our community. As more concrete information becomes available, we will provide guidance on how the executive orders and other directives may impact our programs and community members.”
However, some members of Cornell’s transgender community remain dissatisfied. According to Hugo Keil ’27, the removal of Weill Cornell Medicine’s statement affected his hopes of pursuing the medical treatments essential to having “the body [he has] dreamed of seeing in the mirror.”
“For seven years of my life, since I knew what hormone replacement therapy was, what phalloplasty was, that there was a chance I could have a body of my own — it was what kept me alive,” Keil said. “The knowledge that one day I would be capable of being free to pursue hormonal therapy … gave me strength to carry on.”
Keil furthered that Weill Cornell Medicine’s decision to take down their letter is “indicative of the relentless spinelessness this college has always had in the name of the holy dollar.”
“Weill somehow thinks a happy middle ground is to slowly pull back their support for transgender patients,” Keil said. “I could wax poetic about how transgender people deserve dignity and rights.”
Karys Everett ’25, current undesignated representative-at-large and previous LGBTQIA+ liaison at-large for the Student Assembly, expressed a similar sentiment, criticizing the University’s decision.
“I believe the university has demonstrated to many marginalized communities on campus that their safety is not a priority of the university,” Everett wrote in an email to The Sun. “To actively remove an aspect of care that is not only gender-affirming, but life-saving, is disappointing and ultimately not surprising.”
As of publication, the Weill Cornell Medicine website has kept several of its pages dedicated to issues, resources and medical information that is relevant and of interest to transgender individuals.
The Weill Cornell Medicine page dedicated towards gender-affirming surgeries promises that “the compassionate plastic surgeons at Weill Cornell Medicine are here to help you live in a more confident and embodied way,” ensuring that they are “here to help support you while you navigate the surgical and medical portions of your transition.”
Similarly, the LGBTQ+ Community Healthcare Resources page pledges “to provide compassionate, transparent, and patient-centered care to those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.”
