Parents of four transgender children sued Children’s Hospital Colorado, alleging its decision to suspend gender-affirming care amounts to discrimination under state law. Both Children’s and Denver Health stopped prescribing puberty blockers and hormonal treatment to patients under 18 in late December or early January. Neither hospital performed gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Their decisions followed U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement in mid-December that hospitals providing gender-affirming care to youth could be cut off from all Medicare and Medicaid payments.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Denver District Court and alleges Children’s does not face an immediate loss of federal funding. Even if it did, cutting off care to transgender and nonbinary children constitutes discrimination under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which lists gender identity as a protected characteristic alongside race, sex, disability, religion, and other traits. The lawsuit alleged discrimination based on gender identity, sex, and disability, because the plaintiffs’ children have gender dysphoria—distress when one’s sense of self and sex characteristics don’t align.
The plaintiffs, using pseudonyms, asked the court for permission to file on behalf of all children who had lost gender-affirming care at the hospital’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity as a class action. The lawsuit estimated the center had about 800 patients as of January 2025, without specifying how many were under 18. All four plaintiffs were parents of transgender girls ranging from 9 to 17 years old. The oldest had started hormonal treatment, two younger teens were taking puberty blockers, and the youngest child only received regular checks for puberty onset. Children’s responded in a statement that the decision was legal and avoided loss of federal funding that would jeopardize all types of care.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.reporterherald.com/2026/01/21/childrens-hospital-colorado-sued-transgender-gender-affirming/