California nurses back young transgender patients as Kaiser suspends care

With Kaiser now joining Stanford Medicine, the decision reduces opportunities for minors to receive critical surgeries and services due to federal pressure, according to the CNA.

Lady Rainsard, a registered nurse in plastic surgery at Kaiser San Francisco, sees these decisions as a stark overreach of the government into health care.

“Medical providers, not politicians, know what’s best for our patients,” Rainsard said. “Gender-affirming care is safe and effective.”

“Right now, we deem it a much greater risk to cave to this kind of government overreach than it is to provide this care to our patients, no matter their age,” Rainsard said.

Nurses and doctors are not the only ones decrying measures that block transgender care. On Wednesday, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, released a statement on Kaiser’s decision.

“California law is clear: Health systems can’t deny care to trans people,” he said. “And this is a straight-up denial of care to youth who are under the care of a physician and whose parents have consented to the treatment.”

“While I understand the terrible situation this fascist regime has created for California health systems, denying care to trans kids is wrong and illegal,” Wiener said.

Kaiser nurses say the hospital’s own research demonstrates that such care is appropriate and safe and lambasted Kaiser for giving in to political pressure.

“Kaiser’s own foundation has put out research on the efficacy of this care. The evidence is there that this care is safe and effective,” said Sydney Simpson, a registered nurse in interventional radiology at Kaiser San Francisco. “What’s unsafe and ineffective is caving to political pressure that puts our patients at risk. We won’t stand for it, and it’s why we’re taking action together.”

Wiener pointed to President Donald Trump as the impetus for rising hostility toward trans patients.

“Trump has declared war on trans people and trans kids and their families in particular,” he said. “Now is the time to have these kids’ and these families’ backs, not to fold under pressure from the most homophobic and transphobic Administration in modern history.”

Since returning to office in January, Trump has implemented several sweeping federal policies impacting transgender individuals. On Jan. 20, he signed an order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to The Federal Government,” which legally defines “sex” as an immutable biological classification — male or female — determined at conception, explicitly excluding “gender identity” from federal policy.

This directive requires federal agencies to align their policies, forms, and communications with this binary definition, affecting areas ranging from federal employment records to government-issued identification. Passports, for example, will soon no longer include the “X” or unspecified gender marker — a ruling now being contested in federal courts around the country.

On Jan. 28, another executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” targeted gender-affirming care for minors, broadly defining such treatments as “mutilation” and aiming to prohibit federal funding, sponsorship, or support for them.

Beyond healthcare, the administration has also reinstated a ban on openly transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military. Additionally, through an executive order in February,

“Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” the president directed federal agencies to ensure that schools and institutions receiving federal funding prohibit transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

On Friday, Kaiser said the current “legal and regulatory” environment has created risks for hospitals, which weighed heavily in its decision to “pause” gender-affirming care for minors starting Aug. 29.

“As the legal and regulatory environment for gender-affirming care continues to evolve, we must carefully consider the significant risks being created for health systems, clinicians, and patients under the age of 19 seeking this care,” Kaiser officials said in a statement.

Lisa Kim, senior manager of media relations at Stanford Medicine, sent a similarly worded statement on behalf of the healthcare provider.

“After careful review of the latest actions and directives from the federal government and following consultations with clinical leadership, including our multidisciplinary LGBTQ+ program and its providers, Stanford Medicine paused providing certain gender-related surgical procedures for patients under the age of 19, effective June 2, 2025. We took this step to protect both our providers and patients,” according to the statement.

In response to the policies, registered nurses from Kaiser Permanente held a vigil Friday in San Francisco to honor the transgender patients they feel are being failed.