Some UPMC employees want to continue transing minors

They have some fightin' words for us fascists who are terrified of love.

In my previous post, I shared an open letter from employees to UPMC protesting the latter’s ceasing “GAC” for minors.

Here is a follow-up.

From the same local alphabet-soup blog come interviews with three UPMC employees who signed the open letter. I recommend reading them.

First up is Kailey Andrew, a behavioral health therapist at UPMC’s former gender clinic. Ms Andrew seems to endorse insurance fraud:

What other options [for “GAC”] are available?

Independent clinics and providers, finding ways to beat the system through alternative routes (changing documentation, using a diagnosis that would allow care to go under the radar, stockpiling medication), going out of state for care, and using online prescription sources to name a few. [Emphasis added.]

Ms Andrew, I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure insurance fraud is illegal. You might want to check that.

Next is Katherine, also a behavioral health therapist. She invokes Godwin's Law:

People need to understand that fascism historically starts by going after the most vulnerable: marginalized racial and ethic [sic] groups, immigrants, and queer and trans people. The first books burned in Nazi Germany were the research of Magnus Hirschfeld, a gay Jewish man, and the Institute of Sex research. In addition to offering contraceptives and sexual health checks to the public, he and his staff believed in treating gay and trans people like human beings and many people of the time did, too. The Nazis forbade this research and targeted queer and trans people viciously. Powerful institutions (like UPMC!) complied and let our community be forced to wear pink triangles, ultimately leading to their imprisonment in concentration camps. People may think this comparison is extreme, but it is not. These are the stakes.

Apparently Katherine in unaware that the fascist dictatorships in the UK, France, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have outright banned or severely restricted transing minors.

Katherine also intends to “aid and abet:”

Will you refer clients and potential clients out of the UPMC network? Is that a viable substitute?

We have been told by UPMC higher ups that to refer trans youth under 19 to anywhere they can access hormone therapy and puberty blockers would put us at risk for being criminally charged with aiding and abetting a felony. And that they won’t protect us from these charges as of June 30, 2025. Many providers are taking this really seriously. But I’m not. Many of us, including me, will always choose to “aid and abet” for trans kids.

Katherine concludes with a message to her former clients:

Your [sic] being embodies liberation, choice, community, love, all forces that terrify fascists. Hold onto yourself and each other. We are here, always. We won’t let them kill you or your spirit. It’s not an option[.]

The third employee is Hannah Davy, another clinic therapist:

In your professional opinion, what consequences can we expect as UPMC discontinues these healthcare services? Please help us understand the big and small impacts we might otherwise not notice.

It is hard to put into words the gravity and number of consequences that discontinuing this care would have. Both in the sense that we do not have full research on this phenomenon and it is so vast that I feel I will always be missing some of the impacts in my words. The most notable impacts that have been mentioned in my learning and experience are the potential for withdrawal induced suicidal ideation, psychosis, and gender dysphoria. The most all-encompassing way that I know to explain it is that it will impact every single part of these individuals’ lives, big and small, along with those around them, until the time that they are able to receive healthcare again for themselves as they are. [Emphasis added.]

If we don’t know what could happen when kids discontinue “GAC,” then why are pushing “GAC” in the first place? If a teenager wanting to desist/detransition came to any of these three therapists, how would the three react? Would they support her as passionately as they support the kids they’re transing? Would they “affirm” her decision? Or will they throw her under the bus as the rest of trantifa do?

These are the questions I’d like to ask these therapists.

However, they are correct about one thing: “GAC” for minors is legal in Pennsylvania at this writing.

Today’s lagniappe: the best commercial ever made.