Protect Trans Futures demands ‘Trans Health Care Shield’

Hundreds of trans people and their allies gathered at the Brewer Fountain on Boston Common and marched to the Massachusetts State House on Feb. 7 during a bitterly cold snowstorm. They were responding to Protect Trans Futures’ (PTF) call to fight the Trump administration’s bigoted attacks on their community’s health care. One special target was a local health care provider’s capitulation to Trump’s extortionate policies.

PTF’s demands — which they termed the “Trans Health Care Shield” — would fund public clinics independent of federal funding threats, mandate anti-discrimination in health care and protect private data from political and commercial exploitation. 

The youthful PTF organizers, joined by veterans of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, founded in 1987), coalesced into action out of outrage early 2025 when Boston’s Fenway Health voluntarily announced restrictive new policies conforming to Trump’s threat to cut off federal funding for institutions providing gender-affirming health care to people under 19 years old. 

Fenway Community Health Center was formed in 1971 in a basement by students and community activists, including David Scondras, elected as Boston’s first openly gay city councilor in 1984. They pledged to provide health care as a right, not a privilege or for profit. 

Fenway Health became known for specializing in LGBTQIA2S+ health care. However, in recent years, it succumbed to a corporate model, complete with layoffs as budget cuts, CEO pay and sexual harassment scandals and insensitivity to trans patients and workers left it susceptible to fascist extortion. 

Speakers demanded that Massachusetts state and local politicians end their hand-wringing and immediately address the life-threatening medical crises caused by federal funding cuts and fund establishing independent clinics that will embrace the LGBTQIA2S+ community and gender-affirming health care as a right. This demand goes beyond even New York City’s City Council groundbreaking “Protect Trans Futures Plan” of April 2025, which protects rights but does little to replace cut federal funding.

As Elijah Oyenuga put it: “What has been the most painful is not the choice [Fenway Health] made in an untenable position but that in the eyes of the transgender community they did not fight! They collapsed under the weight of capital … For many of us this felt like a betrayal. They let our youth be sacrificed on the altar of capital, of fear and the health of our queer siblings. …

“The goal of this [Trump] administration is to sow division in our hearts and fracture our community. We need to stand firmly and root ourselves in solidarity now more than ever. I cannot tell anyone how to survive fascism, but without a doubt our enemy is not just this tyrannical administration.” 

In addition, speakers denounced the violent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and kidnappings terrorizing people in cities across the country, including Boston. They declared their solidarity with the Palestinian, Sudanese and Congolese people facing genocide and called for money for housing and health care for all, not war.

“¡Seguimos Aqui! We are still here!”

The march started into the Downtown Crossing shopping district. Protest marching band BABAM (Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians) led a jubilant cadence for chants set to well-known hymns and protest songs as shoppers recorded from the shelter of warm storefronts. The march continued to Government Center and circled back to the State House.

Many chants and signs called for Fenway Health and politicians to take executive action to protect trans health care, including “Trans health care is our right! That is why we have to fight!” A crowd favorite in the shopping district was “Union power loud and clear! Trans workers belong here!” There were also messages pushing back against ICE with signs reading “I like my ICE crushed” and “Queer as in Fuck ICE.” “¡Seguimos Aqui! We are still here!” drew fists of support from onlookers.

 At the State House, PTF organizer Teddy Walker delivered a galvanizing speech to close out the demonstration. He described the progress PTF has made — from having just five people at their first demonstration outside Fenway Health to 20 at the next, then 200, to nearly 500 today. He inspired the crowd with a sense of collective power.

 

Seth Ward contributed the reporting from the march and State House to this article.