LGBTQ Programs at VUMC Gutted by Latest Layoffs

Health programming for members of the LGBTQ community was all but destroyed when Vanderbilt University Medical Center laid off more than 600 employees in June.  

Now-former employee Quinn Bacon is a Vanderbilt Divinity student who ran the Trans Buddy Program under the Program for LGBTQ Health. Bacon tells the Scene that the director, assistant director and chaplain were also fired — leaving the program seemingly without staff. She says she was the only employee not offered severance. VUMC did not respond to requests for comment on the status of the Program for LGBTQ Health.  

Executives told her she’s not fired — but that her position no longer exists.  

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Bacon questions her removal as a cost-saving measure, as she believes she was a federally funded work-study employee with a limit of 29.5 hours working that would not have cost the university money. In her exit interview, she says she was told she wasn’t a work-study employee, meaning she missed opportunities to take on fellowships and supplemental income since she began the job in early 2023. In addition, she says the executives handling the layoffs did not know she was a student, which made her lack of severance more confusing. VUMC did not respond to a request for comment on severance policies. 

“This type of policy is killing trans women,” Bacon tells the Scene, echoing what she told executives. “You are part of the thing killing trans women. Because that's the truth, whenever you intentionally withhold resources from us ... then you decide to use that to save a dime.”

Layoffs were the latest in a string of actions threatening LGBTQ health care, members of the Metro LGBTQ Caucus write in a July 1 open letter. Councilmember At-Large Olivia Hill is a former volunteer with the Trans Buddy program and the VIVID Health Clinic, and participated in campaigns for the center.

“We, the LGBTQ Caucus of the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County, write to you to express our deep disappointment in the pattern of decisions — both actions and inactions — that have left a once-loyal community feeling misled, abandoned, and deeply betrayed,” reads a letter signed by Councilmembers Russ Bradford (chair), Emily Benedict, Brenda Gadd and Hill.  

“You may point to shifting politics, changing laws, or internal pressures, but we know better. This is not about red tape or resources. This is about values.”

The letter points out four instances of rollbacks: the pausing of gender-reaffirming surgeries in October 2022 before Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors went into effect the next year; releasing records to the Tennessee attorney general's office in November 2023; the dismantling of the hospital’s DEI programs; and laying off of LGBTQ outreach staff and medical support during the 2025 Nashville Pride Festival. 

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Dahron Johnson is former chair and current member of the Community Advisory Board for the Program for LGBT Health at Vanderbilt. She wonders if the board technically exists anymore. 

There’s not a clear path to make an appointment on the Program for LGBT Health’s website. And if there aren’t patients, Johnson worries, the institution will be able to question the program’s existence. Information on the VIVID Health Clinic aimed at LGBTQ health has seemingly been removed from VUMC’s website. 

“While they may not have fired the MDs, they've left them very isolated within the institution,” Johnson tells the Scene. “It's got to be hard for an institution to stand by this care, but they chose to be in this space. They chose to offer this care, and if you choose to offer the care, then you don't get to take advantage of saying, 'Well, it's costing me too much.'” 

The board's actions included assisting in the education of doctors and looking over things like intake forms to make sure they’re not discriminatory toward members of the LGBTQ community.

“The Center’s silence — we have still not been contacted even with this news — is perhaps the most egregious, especially as so many, including this Board, have used every opportunity to relay our concerns,” part of a letter from the board to VUMC reads.  

Even when VUMC’s programming for trans youth came to a halt following Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban, Trans Buddy remained to help trans people navigate VUMC.  

As the leader of Trans Buddy, Bacon managed volunteers, and was on call to fill in any gaps of time not covered by volunteers. The program was available to patients 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the year. Trans Buddy helped ensure that trans people were not having care withheld, and helped advocate for and educate providers on pronouns. 

“It was my job to show up, deal with medical discrimination, deal with patients that needed company, community support help, advocating for themselves, all sorts of equity work,” Bacon says. “It felt like important work. It feels like work that will be missed.”