A broad coalition of more than 65 Wisconsin organizations, businesses, faith communities and advocacy groups is publicly urging UW Health and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to immediately resume gender-affirming care for transgender youth, arguing that recent federal court rulings have weakened the legal justification used to pause treatment earlier this year.

In an open letter published May 21, the coalition called on UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin CEO Gil Peri to restart access to what signatories described as “legal and medically necessary care” for transgender youth in Wisconsin.

The letter comes months after both health systems paused gender-affirming care for minors amid escalating federal pressure and regulatory uncertainty surrounding transgender health care. According to the coalition, both institutions cited concerns tied to federal actions and legal risk when announcing the pauses earlier this year.

Signatories argued that a recent federal court decision in State of Oregon v. Kennedy significantly changed the legal landscape. The letter notes that the ruling vacated a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declaration threatening access to gender-affirming care and blocked enforcement of similar policies against plaintiff states, including Wisconsin.

“As Judge Kasubhai stated in his decision out of the District Court of Oregon, ‘there is nothing more serious than our leaders’ dedication to the rule of law,’ and we agree,” the letter states. “We call on our hospital leaders to act on their dedication to their patients and reinstate this legal and medically necessary care for our youth.”

The coalition framed gender-affirming care as evidence-based, individualized and essential to the health and well-being of transgender young people. The letter emphasizes that such care is provided with informed consent from both patients and parents and describes access to treatment as critical to helping transgender youth “thrive and live in a body that feels like home.”

“The provision of gender-affirming care is how we ensure Wisconsin’s transgender young people can become the healthy adults and compassionate leaders we know this state needs,” the letter continues. “Our youth are counting on you.”

Organizations signing onto the letter include statewide LGBTQ advocacy groups, faith communities, health organizations, small businesses and civil rights groups from across Wisconsin. Among the signatories are Fair Wisconsin, GSAFE, ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, Diverse & Resilient, Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, PFLAG Madison, PFLAG Waukesha and Our Lives magazine.

Other signatories include churches, local Pride organizations, reproductive justice advocates, transgender mutual aid groups and businesses including Delta Beer Lab, A Room of One’s Own Bookstore and Community Pharmacy Cooperative.

The full text of the letter follows below.

May 21, 2026

To UW Health CEO Alan Kaplan and CHOW CEO Gil Peri:

We, the undersigned organizations, call on the leadership at UW-Health and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to restart the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth. Gender-affirming care is legal in Wisconsin, but it is increasingly more and more difficult to access due to decisions made to pause the provision of this care at your institutions. These decisions must be reversed and care restarted immediately.

According to publicly available reporting in January, both hospitals paused the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth due to federal decisions; UW Health cited “federal actions” and CHOW cited “escalating legal and federal regulatory risk” when asked. The April decision in the State of Oregon v. Kennedy lawsuit vacated the HHS Declaration that threatened gender-affirming care and issued an injunction against any use of the declaration or any materially similar policy against the plaintiff states, including Wisconsin. This decision puts a stop to the federal action that had, until now, presented the most imminent threat of enforcement. The other most recent federal action was the proposal of rules threatening access to gender-affirming care for youth, and those proposed rules are exactly that – proposed, not finalized, and not in effect.

As Judge Kasubhai stated in his decision out of the District Court of Oregon, “there is nothing more serious than our leaders’ dedication to the rule of law,” and we agree; we call on our hospital leaders to act on their dedication to their patients and reinstate this legal and medically necessary care for our youth.

Transition-related gender-affirming health care for transgender young people is medically necessary care, just like the kids who receive it, and all kids, are necessary. It is age-appropriate, just as it is appropriate to believe someone at any age when they tell you they know who they are and how they want to live, a perspective backed by rigorous scientific evidence. For young people, it is accessed with informed consent of the patient and their parents. It is individualized, just like the young people who receive it are, themselves, unique individuals. It is high-quality, just like the bright future this state and country have ahead of us when all our children thrive.

Young people and their families deserve to know it is within their power to continue to access this medically necessary care. All these young people want, and all their families and providers want for them, is for them to be able to thrive and live in a body that feels like home. The provision of gender-affirming care makes that possible.

The provision of gender-affirming care is how we ensure Wisconsin’s transgender young people can become the healthy adults and compassionate leaders we know this state needs. Every day transgender young people can access this medically necessary, age-appropriate, individualized, high-quality health care is one more day that helps our youth build a future – build their own future and build the future of our state.

We eagerly await your reply and look forward to the day transgender young people in Wisconsin are again able to access gender-affirming care at UW Health and CHOW. Our youth are counting on you.

Signatories

• Fair Wisconsin
• GSAFE
• A Better Wisconsin Together
• A Room of One’s Own Bookstore
• ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation
• Ahan
• Awesomely Radical Love
• Baldwin’s Books & Records
• Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity
• Becoming Better Neighbors
• Bethany United Methodist Church – Madison
• Bi+ Pride Milwaukee
• BLB Productions
• Blue Bar Quilts, Inc.
• Cash & Olive’s Pub
• Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center
• Common Grace
• Community Pharmacy Cooperative
• Courage+
• Delta Beer Lab
• Diverse & Resilient
• EarthWise Pet Supply – Madison, WI
• Embolden WI
• End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin
• Families for Justice
• First Baptist Church of Madison
• FLYY
• Freedom Action NOW
• Freedom, Inc.
• Hate Free Outagamie
• Indivisible Madison East
• Kenosha Pride
• Lion’s Tooth
• Luna Creative Collaborations, LLC
• Madison Minotaurs Rugby Club
• Madison Transgender Resistance Action Committee
• MARRCH
• Memorial UCC, Fitchburg
• Middleton Community United Church of Christ
• Middleton Pride
• Milwaukee LGBT Community Center
• MN Transgender Alliance – NW WI Chapter
• National Association of Social Workers, Wisconsin Chapter
• Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ
• Our Lives magazine
• OutReach, Inc.
• PFLAG Madison
• PFLAG Mount Horeb
• PFLAG Waukesha
• Pride At Work-Milwaukee Area Chapter
• Providers and Teens Communicating for Health (PATCH)
• Queer Campout
• Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee
• Salem United Church of Christ
• Sun Seeker MKE
• Trans Advocacy Madison
• Trans Law Help Wisconsin, Inc.
• Trans Liberation Milwaukee
• Trans Medical Mutual Aid
• Trans Northland
• Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools
• Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault
• Wisconsin Council of Churches
• Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project
• Wisconsin Public Education Network
• Wisconsin United Roller Derby