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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – In an effort to hold the University of Virginia Board of Visitors accountable for their vote that ended gender-affirming care for those under 19 by UVA Health, about two-to-three dozen protestors showed up north of the Rotunda for a protest and die-in Thursday. They set up tombstones with pictures of youths across the nation who’ve taken their own lives after being denied such care. There were also posters with images of BOV members, some who voted for and new ones they say support the vote, of the new policy. The posters read “wanted for the murder of trans kids”.
The protestors carried signs, read poems, and read off the list of names and descriptions of the youths included on the tombstones. As for the “wanted” posters, co-organizer Mouse said, “When a kid kills themself because of state repression, because of institutional repression, I don’t think that’s a suicide. That’s a state murder. That’s an execution.”
The protestors spread theatrical blood on their arms before lying down in front of the fake tombstones since the most common method of suicide for these young people was slitting wrists.
One organizer read from an email letter from a parent of a trans son advocating for others to have access to the gender-affirming care she credits with helping save his life. The letter read her son was told by many there was something wrong with him, but persevered and has lived to his fullest since help and transition.
“Please live up to the aspiration we see posted everywhere,” the letter reads. “Being great and good in all we do includes providing gender-affirming care to those who want it.”
UVA’s Board of Visitors voted in February in a special meeting to not offer gender-affirming care to youths under 19, citing a President Trump Executive Order. The resolution approved said “if appropriate”, to “refer current patients as soon as practicable to alternative private providers that may be less susceptible to the significant legal and funding uncertainties facing the University and other private providers.”
New patients are to be referred elsewhere until further notice.
Mouse said for many youths in Charlottesville and surrounding counties, UVA is the only place that can provide the care they need and do it affordably.