Aired on Tues., Feb. 11, 2025 on 99.5 FM WBAI/NY
Sound file of the program is available below. Press play to stream or green down arrow to download mp3 file.
Gender Liberation Rally 2/8/2025
On Saturday Feb 8th, thousands of people attended a rally in Union Square in Manhattan to Rise Up For Trans Youth —co-organized by Trans formative Schools, Gender Liberation Movement, and ACT UP NY. This came in response to the recent decision by at least three NYC hospitals -- NYU Langone, Mount Sinai, New York (Columbia) Presbyterian -- to pre-emptively comply with the Trump Administration's illegal executive order threatening hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to young people under 19 with losing their federal grants.
We spent the hour covering the rally. MD D'Elia, a member of Rise and Resist and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), provided the sound file from the rally.
The rally was multiracial and the age distribution was wide but largely under 60. Nearly half the speakers were minors who identified as trans or non-binary. A number of parents spoke as well. The rally was in support of Transgender rights and the rights of Non-Binary people. In my opinion, it clearly showed the face of the people on the front line of the battle for trans healthcare access rights, the trans children and their parents.
Many of the speakers were students who went to Transformative Schools, a after school safe haven in Brooklyn for trans young people, as well as their parents and teachers. Many spoke about the importance of gender-affirming care and spoke out against the cowardice of many of the City's hospitals that suddenly stopped honoring appointments scheduled out of fear of the federal government, essentially dropping these young people as patients.
#LGBTQ #GenderLiberationMovement #RaquelWillis #transphobia #transyouth
Rise Up For Trans Youth Rally Speakers
Follow ongoing activism on these issues:
About Out-FM