VUMC Ceases Operations at Pediatric Transgender Clinic

Despite having at least another month to legally provide care to transgender youth, the Pediatric Transgender Clinic at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center stopped serving patients June 1, multiple families confirmed to Scene sister publication the Nashville Post. 

Parents received an email stating: “Your current medication prescription is affected by the laws coming into effect regarding gender affirming care. VUMC will not fulfill refill requests for medication prescribed for gender affirming care after June 1, 2023. ... All medications dispensed for gender affirming care must have a completion date that is prior to 7/1/23.”

A law banning gender-affirming care that passed in the state legislature earlier this year was set to take effect July 1. It would require trans youth currently receiving gender-affirming care to end that care within nine months. The law was the fulfillment of a promise from Republican lawmakers at an anti-trans rally in October led by right-wing media figure Matt Walsh, who led an attack on the VUMC clinic via Twitter ahead of the rally. 

In April, the American Civil Liberties Union and others brought a lawsuit against the state on behalf of families with transgender children, including one Nashville family. One week later, the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in to try to block the law. 

The Vanderbilt Pediatric Transgender Clinic’s website was down for a few weeks following the Walsh attacks, and again was producing an “404: This page could not be found” message since at least Feb. 12, according to internet archive the Wayback Machine. 

A VUMC representative declined to answer questions about the timeline and would not say if the clinic is still offering services. 

“Pertaining to gender-affirming care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, we continue to fully comply with all federal and state laws and are carefully following the legal proceedings challenging the constitutionality of Tennessee’s new law,” Craig Boerner, spokesperson for VUMC, says in an email. 

The ACLU of Tennessee expects a preliminary injunction to be filed before the July 1 effective date. 

In a statement to the Post, ACLU spokesperson Gillian Branstetter says: “Gender-affirming care would remain legal during the course of our challenge if we get a preliminary injunction from the judge blocking enforcement of any part of the law before the 7/1 effective date. Similar laws have been blocked in Alabama and Arkansas while those trials proceed.” 

Tennessee is one of 11 states that has proposed a law limiting gender-affirming care for trans youth. But two states, Alabama and Arkansas, are ahead of Tennessee in the process. In 2021, Arkansas passed a similar law, and the ACLU sued. The case is ongoing. In 2022, Alabama was the first to make providing gender-affirming medical treatment a felony in the state. Like in Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Justice promptly challenged the law, and eventually a judge ruled to allow hormones and puberty blockers but not surgeries.

The Tennessee law, introduced as House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1 this legislative session, puts doctors at risk of losing their license for providing gender-affirming care to minors. It also provides a path for parents to sue if the care happened without their consent and for people who received gender-affirming care as minors to sue their medical providers as adults. Even if the family involved is satisfied with their child’s care, the state attorney general can sue a provider.  

In October, VUMC responded to the conservative uproar, stating it would temporarily pause gender-affirmation surgeries on patients younger than 18. VUMC noted that among those minor patients receiving transgender care, an average of five per year received surgery. All of those patients were 16 years old or older and none received genital surgeries.  

In June, VUMC issued a press release celebrating Pride Month, in which the medical center mentioned for the first time its seemingly rebranded care for LGBTQ adults, VIVID Health, which includes gender-affirming care for adults. 

This article first ran via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.