Defiant Protests Target Fenway Health As Youth Care Ends
Organizers spanning generations converged to demand the LGBTQ+ community health center reinstate gender-affirming care for patients under 19.
Activists chalking sidewalks in front of Fenway Health in Boston, Massachusetts on November 1. photo by Evan Urquhart
by Evan Urquhart
On a brisk November afternoon in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts, more than two dozen protesters chanted and chalked sidewalks in front of Fenway Health. The queer community health center, which was at the forefront of treating Boston patients during the AIDS epidemic, shocked the LGBTQ+ community with a recent announcement that they would end the provision of gender-affirming care to patients under 19.
Leadership of the protest spanned generations, with ACT UP veterans such as Gerry Scoppettuolo working the crowd alongside relative newcomers, like 20-year-old Teddy Walker, to greet attendees, collect contact information, and direct those assembled to refreshments, chalk, and art supplies. The Saturday protest was the latest in a series of actions aimed at pressuring the LGBTQ+ focused health center to reverse their decision to end care for trans youth and young adults.
The ethnically diverse group assembled included trans adults, cis gay men and lesbians, as well as parents of trans kids. Three such parents were among the most passionate protestors present, waving signs at passing traffic and bitterly decrying what they saw as a betrayal by executives at Fenway Health.
“How could they kowtow?” asked one of these protestors, who gave her first name as Katherine and described herself as the mother of an adult trans child. “They were supposed to be the leaders. I thought my child was finally safe, but now I don’t feel safe at all.”
Katherine, Amanda, and Liana hold signs protesting cuts to trans healthcare at Fenway. photo by Evan Urquhart
Also in attendance was Alejandra Caraballo, a trans writer and activist who previously served on the Fenway Health board. Caraballo blasted the organization for what she described as “one capitulation after another” in an extemporaneous speech to the assembled group.
“Fenway is under no legal obligation to stop providing care,” Caraballo said. “They’re pretending that they are. Other local providers have not stopped providing this care so why has Fenway stopped providing this care?”
Evan Urquhart is the founder of Assigned Media