AURORA, Colo. — There's now one fewer place for young transgender people to get certain types of care in Colorado -- and the change is a win for people who want to threaten them.
Children's Hospital Colorado said gender-affirming care has led to threats at other children's hospitals nationwide. Now it is no longer providing gender-affirming surgery for people over 18. The hospital never offered those surgeries for minors.
A spokesperson said the hospital had to take steps to protect the safety of staff and patients, but there are other hospitals in the region that still offer that medical care.
Transgender rights advocates wondered how long that would last.
"The precedent that they're setting is dangerous," said Ruby Lopez, an advocate with OutBoulder. "My fear is that other hospitals are also going to follow suit."
She said she moved to Colorado because she felt safe transitioning here, and now worries other young people won't find the same support.
"I'm starting to become a little bit nervous that it's not as safe here as I thought," she said.
The national rhetoric against transgender people has come to the state, she said, and now it's impacting care for people in places like Colorado where public attitude is more favorable to trans people.
"Targeting hospitals directly is yielding results," she said. "For a lot of trans folks, medically transitioning can be the difference between life and death -- and that is not too big of an exaggeration."
Children's will still provide other gender-affirming care, such as hormone therapy. The family of one patient told 9NEWS Children's referred them to other surgery centers that provide surgical care.
"We are focusing on delivering emotional and medical care to our pediatric patients and their families," hospital spokesperson Rachael Fowler said. "There are many hospitals in the region where adult patients can receive gender-affirming surgical care."
But Lopez said it's complicated for those families to now find the surgery they planned on.
"It is not as simple as a young person just walking into a clinic and saying 'Hey I want to have top surgery,'" she said. "That is pure fantasy."
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