by Staff Reporter | Feb 12, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Phoenix Children’s Hospital no longer provides gender transitions for children, parents of gender dysphoric children learned this week.
The hospital pumped the brakes for its Gender Support Program (formerly the Gender Management Program) shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning gender transitions for children, “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
“Due to the recent executive order issued on January 28, 2025 Phoenix Children’s is indefinitely pausing gender-affirming medical care for children under the age of 19,” read a notice issued by the hospital to patient portals involved in their gender transition program.
Like Trump’s other executive orders, the president’s mandate ending gender transitions for children quickly faced legal challenges.
As a result of its pause on the gender transition program, Phoenix Children’s Hospital arranged for its pharmacists to wean program children off of any puberty blockers or hormones.
On Monday, parents also received letters from providers Vinny Chulani and Ashish Patel advising of the end to puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.
The hospital marketed its Gender Support Program as the most comprehensive in the state. The program offered consultation for parenting strategies, endocrinology consults, and referrals to mental health providers and specialists for various procedures.
These consultations would explore the use of puberty-suppressing medications as well as masculinizing and feminizing hormonal therapies. The hospital also provided support and advocacy for social transition endeavors in schools and the public through legal name and gender marker changes on identifying documents.
At one time, the hospital affiliated its Gender Support Program with the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization.
Public details of the program in recent years became less available. After AZ Free News covered Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s gender transition program at length, the hospital scrubbed more public information of its program from its website.
The extension of transgender ideology to children offered a sort of community for parents affirming the gender dysphoria of their children. Parents of children who underwent gender transition procedures offered by Phoenix Children’s Hospital would join the Gender Proud Patient and Family Advisory Council.
Activist groups issued a statement lamenting Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s decision as a “betrayal” to their cause.
“Gender-affirming care has been shown to significantly improve the mental, emotional, and physical health of transgender youth,” said the coalition. “To remove access to this care in Arizona is a direct attack on the trans community and the families who have fought tirelessly for their children’s well-being.”
Those who signed onto the statement: Tami Staas, the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization; Carol Tappenden, the Education Action Alliance (formerly GLSEN Arizona); Brandie Reiner, NASW Arizona; Dustin Griswold, Family Planning Associates Medical Group; Jeanne Casteen, Secular AZ; Civia Tamarkin, National Council of Jewish Women Arizona; Nate Rhoton, one-n-ten; Grace Chenal, SIGA Therapy; Darrell Hill, ACLU of Arizona; Lynn Davis, Rabbi Joseph H. Gumbiner Community Action Project; Lori Shepherd, Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center; Athena Salman, Reproductive Freedom for All Arizona; Maria Ingalla, psychiatric mental health nurse and practitioner; and Jodi Liggett, Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement.
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by Corinne Murdock | Dec 14, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The president and CEO of Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH), Bob Meyer, was recently named among the top 100 most influential figures in health care.
The recognition from Modern Healthcare comes not long after widespread controversy over the hospital’s practice of “gender-affirming care,” a euphemism for medical and surgical procedures to transition genders. Modern Healthcare selected Meyer for not only accomplishing clinical, operational, and financial goals, but for accomplishing progressive ideals through implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
In a press release, Meyer credited his recognition to PCH’s creation of new programs and centers — among which is the controversial Gender Support Program.
“This is a reflection of the tireless commitment of our thousands of colleagues who have dedicated themselves to creating nationally recognized programs and centers of excellence that give our patients hope and healing,” said Meyer. “For more than 20 years, my primary focus has been to grow Phoenix Children’s into the Southwest’s premier pediatric health system, and we will continue to expand access to the top-ranked pediatric healthcare our children need and deserve.”
Meyer joined PCH in 2003. It was under Meyer that PCH established its Gender Support Program around 2015, one of the only comprehensive gender transition programs for minors in the state. The program spun off a support group for families whose children underwent gender transition procedures: the Gender Proud Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC).
Due to laws passed in recent years outlawing gender transition surgeries, PCH limits its gender transition offerings to hormonal and therapy treatments; PCH refers patients elsewhere for surgical procedures.
PCH’s Gender Support Program, previously the “Gender Management Program,” conducts consultations for families on gender transitioning, the use of puberty blockers, and the use of hormonal replacement drugs; readiness evaluations for puberty suppression and cross-sex hormonal replacement drug usage by mental health providers; a staff psychologist-led weekly support group, as well as other mental supports; community advocacy, from speaking engagements to advocate for gender transitioning to assisting patients with legal name and gender marker changes on identifying documents; and media appearances to further advocate for gender ideology.
The program is affiliated with Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization. PCH also offers minors access to “affirming” gender transition procedures through its Homeless Youth Outreach Program, which applies to minors who are not only homeless but those considered “at risk” for becoming homeless due to their gender dysphoria.
One of the resources offered by the program through PCH’s Emily Center Family Health Library is its now-deleted Gender Support Program Resource Guide. AZ Free News was able to access an archived version of the resource page.
Program resources included links to this American Psychological Association (APA) article on transgenderism, the now-defunct “genderbread” website, the now-defunct Australian-based “Trans 101” website on gender diversity, this APA fact sheet on non-binary gender identities, this Advocates for Youth page advocating for transgenderism in minors, this Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) pronoun guide.
The program also included video and website resources explaining the medical and surgical interventions for child gender transitions. PCH relied on resources from the Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of California at San Francisco’s Center of Excellence for Transgender Health resource to explain puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapies.
At the helm of the PCH program is its founder, Veenod Chulani. Their staff also includes pediatric endocrinologist Reeti Chawla, pediatric psychologist Joshua Kellison, and therapists Andrew Melina, Patrick Goodman, and Anne Marie Cardinal.
Goodman is the husband of Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Last November, PCH hosted a session featuring Chulani and pediatrician Edith Allen to discuss PCH’s approach to treating gender dysphoria: “affirmative, culturally humble, trauma responsive, and strength-based.” PCH also focused on legislative and cultural efforts to resist gender transitions for minors.
Chulani has served as the medical director of quality of care and child safety for the Arizona chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 2016.
PCH projects that it will be the fourth-largest pediatric health care system nationally. PCH has just under 2,000 primary care providers and specialists covering just under 80 subspecialities. The hospital network opened a new campus in Glendale last month, preceded by an emergency center in Avondale over the summer.
The Gender Support Program is limited to PCH’s main campus.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
