Gay couple from homophobic country is now trying to self-deport after mistreatment ICE detention

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

A gay couple from Azerbaijan is suffering the current administration’s crusade against immigrants from two sides of a heavy glass partition at an ICE detention facility in Georgia.

“He’s inside, but I’m outside, but I’m living the same situation,” Samir Gadirov, 30, told the Advocate of his husband held in detention. “I’m experiencing the same situation, same feelings.”

Gadirov’s husband, Tural Atakishiyev, 40, was taken into custody in January during a routine immigration check-in in North Carolina, where the couple lives and has a small home renovation business.

The couple met when Gadirov, a permanent U.S. resident, was on vacation in Azerbaijan in 2024. Atakishiyev entered the U.S. with temporary permission, applied for asylum and work authorization, and the couple married last November.

Their marriage opened a path for residency for Atakishiyev, as well, Gadirov said.

But five weeks ago, Atakishiyev was taken into custody. The day still feels unreal, Gadirov said.

He described waiting at the check-in office where Atakishiyev was reporting, and noticing that the staffer was avoiding eye contact. His husband never returned.

The Department of Homeland Security claims Atakishiyev had missed check-ins, which Gadirov disputes. “We never, never missed any of those, and we only followed the rules,” he said. “We applied for asylum, we got married, we applied for I-130, and every legal step that needs to be done, we have done that. But ICE now is lying.”

Now Gadirov drives the six hours from North Carolina to the Stewart Detention Center in southwestern Georgia for his single allotted visit per week with Atakishiyev.

“I can see him through glass windows only,” he said. “The food is awful, and the medication is awful. It’s been like a month, but they have not given him his prescription medication, the pills, because he has panic attacks.”

“He already lost 25 pounds,” Gadirov said.

Now the couple faces a choice: fight their case for months while Atakishiyev remains detained, or “self-deport” to Azerbaijan, where LGBTQ+ people suffer discrimination and worse, and their marriage won’t be recognized.

They’ve chosen the latter.

“I knew the U.S. as a free country,” Gadirov said. “The United States was equal to freedom, but now it’s not.”

Gadirov said his husband’s health mattered more than staying in the United States.

“His mental health is very important to me,” he said. “So, five, six months inside, we don’t want it.”

Now Gadirov is trying to convince DHS, ICE, and an immigration judge to simply let his husband go so the couple can leave the country.

“We’ll have to deal again with ICE to kind of figure out his plane ticket and how we can make this situation as quick as possible,” Gadirov said. “But it seems like it’s very slow.”

In the meantime, Gadirov is thankful for help from a local church and an immigrant advocacy group who’ve started a GoFundMe campaign to help with what comes next for the couple.

Gadirov envisions a life in the country.

“We can live in the countryside, and kind of start our lives from scratch, from zero,” he said.

“He’s my second half,” Gadirov said of Atakishiyev. “If we can be happy as a couple together in Azerbaijan, in the countryside, we are fine with that.”

Hate incidents against LGBTQ+ community on the rise in Texas, across the U.S.: Report

Read more at CBS News.

Hate incidents against the LGBTQ+ community are increasing across the country, including in Texas.

That’s according to a new report by GLAAD, one of the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations in the country.

Data from GLAAD’s 2025 Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker desk shows that in Texas alone, there were over 60 incidents against members of the community. Those incidents include violent assaults, vandalism, and threats of mass shootings.

“We unfortunately found that there were more than 1,000 of these incidents, and in Texas specifically, we found that Texas was ranked third highest in the U.S.,” said GLAAD’s Sarah Moore. “It’s a snapshot of what LGBTQ people are going through, and not a total, you know, all-encompassing number. We know so many of these stories are not going reported, and if they are being reported, they might be uninvestigated, or they might be dismissed by local police departments.”

The report comes as Texas lawmakers advance policies that advocates said directly impact the LGBTQ+ community, like the so-called “bathroom bill,” which requires people in government buildings and schools to use certain facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth, as well as the removal of rainbow and decorative crosswalks.

“This isn’t just, you know, something that people are putting into comment sections on Facebook. It’s not just something that we’re using to win political campaigns, but this type of rhetoric is having a very real impact on the lived experience of LGBTQ folks,” Moore said.

In Arlington, organizers of Arlington Pride cancelled this year’s celebration after the city council’s vote to revise the ordinance over concerns it could jeopardize federal funding. Critics said the new version strips away protections for the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups.

“There’s a very strategic political agenda out there to make people feel other,” said Deejay Johannessen, the CEO at the Help Center for LGBTQ+ Health. “It’s showing that they’re less than and people then act upon that because they’re taking the lead from the political leaders.”

Johannessen said while members of the LGBTQ+ community have long faced challenges, the current climate is especially difficult.

“We can have our differences, but everybody has the right to live their lives. and feel safe in their own community,” Johannessen said.

Victoria passes law protecting intersex children from unnecessary surgeries

Read more at Pink News.

The Victorian Parliament has passed a new law that protects intersex children from being subjected to unnecessary medical procedures without their consent.

The new legislation was passed on 19 February with multipartisan support, 24 votes to 15. It is designed to stop children born with innate variations of sex characteristics from receiving unnecessary surgeries to alter them until they are old enough to decide for themselves.

The reformed bill also includes the formation of a panel of medical experts and people with lived experience to oversee medical treatment plans for intersex children, stricter guidelines on when treatment and surgeries are necessary, support for patients and their families, and continued consent from parents and caregivers for medically-necessary treatments.

In a statement, bioethicist and Executive Director of Intersex Human Rights Australia Dr Morgan Carpenter said: “It is such a powerful moment for the bill to pass with such broad support. Thank you to the members of the Legislative Council, and thank you to the Victorian government for bringing the bill before parliament in an election year.”

Tony Briffa, an intersex advocate and Co-Chair of InterAction for Health and Human Rights, celebrated the victory, saying she is “incredibly proud” that Victoria had taken the historic step for the next generation.

“I have carried the weight of decisions made about my body without my consent — choices that changed my life forever, and that could have waited until I was old enough to understand and speak for myself,” she continued.

“It has taken years of pain and healing to reclaim who I am, unlearn the shame and finally understand that I was always enough. Our bodily differences are a natural part of human diversity. Surgical or hormonal interventions should proceed only where there is clear medical necessity — and where that need outweighs the risk of causing lifelong harm.”

According to Equality Australia, there are at least 40 known variations of intersex characteristics which occur across approximately 1.7 percent of the population.

The consequences of unnecessary surgeries on intersex children include, but are not limited to, loss of sexual function and sensation, loss of fertility, urinary tract issues, a need for ongoing medical treatment or repeat surgeries, incorrect gender assignment, loss of autonomy and negative self-image in later life.

Ken Paxton sues Children’s Health and Dallas doctor for allegedly providing transgender youth care

Read more at KERA News.

Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Children’s Health System of Texas and a Dallas doctor Wednesday for allegedly violating a Texas ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

The AG asked a Collin County judge for a temporary injunction to stop the two defendants from providing any gender-affirming care or filing any claims to Texas Medicaid for that care.

The suit alleges Jason Jarin, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist at Children’s Health and associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, violated the law with 19 patients. It alleges he violated a 2023 law that prevents health care providers from giving transgender youth puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy or surgery for the purpose of transitioning — one of a number of Texas laws aimed at limiting the type of care transgender adults and children can receive.

Paxton also argues Jarin filed claims for these services with Texas Medicaid, which doesn’t cover any gender-affirming care.

“This criminal extremist not only permanently harmed children, but he also then defrauded Medicaid and stuck Texas taxpayers with the bill for this insanity,” Paxton wrote in a statement. “Experimental ‘transition’ procedures on minors are illegal, unethical, and will not be tolerated in Texas.”

Jarin told KERA News Wednesday morning he had just learned of the lawsuit, and declined to comment.

Children’s Health told KERA in a statement its “top priority is the health and well-being of the patients and families we serve.”

“We comply with all applicable local, state and federal health care laws. Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further at this time,” the statement read.

Jarin became an assistant professor at UT Southwestern in 2016 and has published studies on transgender children, according to his faculty profile.

Many of the lawsuit allegations claim he intentionally prescribed extra hormones for transgender kids leading up to Sept. 1, 2023, when the law took effect, so that they could continue to get treatment.

The law, known as Senate Bill 14, did allow for prescriptions to continue for children who were “already subject to a continuing course of treatment that began prior to June 1, 2023,” and children who “attended at least 12 mental health counseling or psychotherapy sessions over a period of at least six months prior to starting treatment,” according to Paxton’s suit. But those prescriptions had to be for the purpose of weaning the patient off the drug.

Jarin is accused of violating SB 14 with 12 of the 19 patients. If found liable, he could lose his medical license — SB 14 requires the Texas Medical Board to revoke the license of any physician who provides gender-affirming care to a child.

Kansas GOP overrides gov’s veto to enact bill that could ban “husbands from wives’ shared hospital rooms”

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto of an extreme bathroom bill that Democrats say will ban people from visiting loved ones in hospitals, nursing homes, and dorms if they aren’t of the same sex.

“As I said in my veto statement, this is a poorly drafted bill with significant, far-reaching consequences,” Kelly said in a statement. “Not only will this bill keep brothers from visiting sisters’ dorms and husbands from wives’ shared hospital rooms, it will cost Kansas taxpayers millions of dollars to comply with this very vague legislation.”

Kelly vetoed S.B. 244 last Friday. But, because Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, they were able to override her veto in a party-line vote. The Kansas House of Representatives voted 87-37 in favor of overriding her veto, and the state Senate voted 31-9 in favor. Both votes occurred in the last 24 hours.

“Kansas Democrats are for They/Them,” Senate President Ty Masterson (R) said in a statement. “I will continue to fight for you, and protect women and girls across our state.”

Republicans in the state legislature passed S.B. 244 last month. The bill was originally about gender markers on drivers’ licenses, but Republicans used a sneaky maneuver called “gut-and-go” to hold hearings on the drivers’ license part of the bill and then change the text to include bathroom provisions, without holding hearings on those bathroom provisions.

The bathroom provisions will ban trans people from using facilities that do not align with their sex assigned at birth in government buildings.

The law “obviously discriminates against transgender people in ways that make our lives exponentially more difficult and dangerous,” said state Rep. Abi Boatman (D), who is transgender.

Democrats stressed that the bathroom provisions were poorly written and would affect any situation where people are being housed in shared living spaces, like dorms, nursing homes, and hospitals.

“If your grandfather is in a nursing home in a shared room, as a granddaughter, you would not be able to visit him. If your sister is living in a dorm at K-State, as a brother, you would not be able to visit her in her room,” Kelly said in a statement when vetoing the bill. “I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable for Kansans.”

“If you feel you have to accompany your nine-year-old daughter to the restroom at a sporting event, as a father, you would have to either enter the women’s restroom with her or let her use the restroom alone.”

State Sen. Kellie Warren (R) said that the unintended consequences won’t happen because, she told CJ Online, they’re “not the subject of the bill.”

The bill will also ban trans people from getting the gender markers updated on their driver’s licenses. The Kansas Department of Revenue will have to invalidate licenses where the gender marker has been corrected, and the same applies to birth certificates.

European Parliament passes resolution that says trans women are women

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

The European Parliament agreed to a resolution that says that trans women are women last Wednesday.

The resolution was to adopt recommendations concerning the European Union’s priorities for the 70th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which is set to take place next month in New York. The U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is charged with promoting gender equality across the globe.

Citing the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as several other international proclamations, the council set a list of recommendations for the E.U. to pursue at the convention, including: “emphasize the importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies; call for recognition of and equal access for trans women to protection and support services.”

The resolution also mentioned LGBTQ+ people in several other places, including in the statement about needing a “comprehensive tool to monitor and counter democratic backsliding and backsliding in women’s rights” and citing “attacks by anti-gender and anti-rights movements” that “undermine democracy and target women’s and LGBTIQ+ rights.”

The section on funding cuts to non-governmental organizations included “LGBTIQ+ organizations” as needing support. The section on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) mentioned “access to gender-sensitive mental health services for young women and LGBTIQ+ people.” And a section about the E.U. commitment to foreign policy stressed the need to prioritize “the needs of women and LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders.”

The resolution was adopted in a 340-141 vote, with 68 abstentions.

Independent journalist Erin Reen notes that this now puts the E.U. “on a direct collision course with the United States,” which will also be at the session, a reference to the current presidential administration’s stated policy that trans people’s existence must be denied by the federal government.

While the European Parliament’s recommendations aren’t binding, they are expected to have significant influence on the E.U.’s positions at the forum.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes anti-trans ‘bathroom bounty’ bill

Read more at the Advocate.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has vetoed what LGBTQ+ advocates are calling an anti-transgender “bathroom bounty” bill.

Kelly, a Democrat in a heavily Republican state, Friday vetoed Senate Bill 244, passed by legislators in January along party lines, Republicans for, Democrats against. It would have required trans people to restrooms and other single-sex facilities in government buildings according to their sex assigned at birth, not their gender identity. It further would have required the state to reissue any driver’s licenses or birth certificates that reflected a trans person’s gender identity, replacing that gender marker with one for the sex assigned at birth. It further would have banned multi-occupancy gender-neutral restrooms in government buildings.

It would have imposed a fine on individuals of $1,000 for a second violation of the law and would allow those “aggrieved” by the presence of a trans person to sue for damages of $1,000 or the amount of actual damages. The government entity would be fined $25,000 for the first violation and $125,000 for any subsequent violation. The lawsuit provision is not limited to government buildings.

In her veto message, Kelly called the bill “poorly drafted.”

“This poorly drafted bill will have numerous and significant consequences far beyond the intent to limit the right for trans people to use the appropriate bathroom,” she wrote. “Under this bill: If your grandfather is in a nursing home in a shared room, as a granddaughter, you would not be able to visit him. If your wife is in a shared hospital room, as a husband, you would not be able to visit her. If your sister is living in a dorm at K-State, as a brother, you would not be able to visit her in her room. … I believe the Legislature should stay out of the business of telling Kansans how to go to the bathroom and instead stay focused on how to make life more affordable for Kansans.”

Related: Kansas governor passes law requiring ID to view acts of ‘homosexuality’ online, vetoes anti-LGBTQ+ bill

The legislation is known as a “gut and go” bill because it started out with an altogether different purpose. SB 244 originated as a bill to regulate bail bond companies. A House committee deleted those contents and replaced them with the anti-trans language. The gender marker provisions had a public hearing, but not the bathroom provisions.

“Procedurally, it is the absolute worst bill I have ever heard in the Kansas legislature,” Democratic Rep. Dan Osman said during debate on the measure, according to the Kansas Reflector. “It was done with one purpose and one purpose only — to ensure that the absolute least number of people were available as opponents to this bill and that they were unaware that there would even be a hearing.”

Rep. Abi Boatman, the only trans person currently serving in the legislature, said she felt the bill was aimed at her, the Reflector reports. “I have sat here for five and a half hours and listened to this entire room debate my humanity and my ability to participate in the most basic functions of society,” Boatman, a Democrat who was appointed in January to fill a vacancy, said as the debate ended. “From the bottom of my heart, I hope none of you have to ever sit through something like that.” Another Democrat, Rep. Susan Ruiz, said the legislation “spits on basic human decency.”

Democratic Rep. Alexis Simmons said it’s sexism, not trans women, that is a threat to women’s safety. “Here in this building, as an intern, as a committee assistant, as staff and as a legislator, I have been sexually harassed more than you would believe,” she said, according to the Reflector. “If we’re going to talk about women’s safety, we should address the real trauma, which is how women are treated, not putting the spotlight on one new member of our legislature.”

House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard predicted that if the bill became law, it would be struck down in court. Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, lost a court case dealing with gender markers, he noted. “As long as Kris Kobach’s our attorney general, I think he’s going to continue to lose in court,” Woodard said.

The legislation “would cut directly against the inclusive workplace policies many Kansas cities have already adopted,” a Human Rights Campaign press release notes, and its “broad restrictions across public buildings, including schools, universities, airports, and government offices, would affect large numbers of public-sector employees and contribute to a chilling effect at work.”

An override of Kelly’s veto could happen unless some who supported the bill change their minds. Both the House and Senate passed the legislation with more than the two-thirds majority necessary for an override. Kelly has previously vetoed bills banning gender-affirming care for trans youth and barring them from competing in school sports under their gender identity, but legislators overrode those vetoes, so the bills became law.

Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, both Republicans, vowed overrides, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports. “I never thought I’d see the day when our state’s own governor would turn her back on women by forcing them to use bathrooms in public buildings with biological men,” said a statement from Masterson. “Sadly, our governor has decided she will side with they/them over simple, scientific truth. Kansans need not worry — the Kansas Senate will restore sanity and override her veto.”

Related: Kansas public universities end LGBTQ+, DEI programs

LGBTQ+ groups, meanwhile, are praising Kelly’s veto. HRC President Kelley Robinson issued this statement: “The length that Republican lawmakers will go in attacking the transgender community instead of solving real issues facing Kansans is appalling. SB244 is about invading privacy, forcing people into the wrong bathrooms, stripping transgender Kansans of accurate IDs, and inviting government-sanctioned harassment — all pushed through using cynical procedural tricks to silence public opposition. Shameful policies like this are part and parcel of a national right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ campaign, and they don’t make anyone safer. They green light harassment and violence targeting transgender people while opening the door to invasive gender policing that affects everyone.

“We’re grateful to Governor Laura Kelly and Kansas State Rep. Abi Boatman for continuing to stand up for transgender Kansans. They have been consistent, courageous defenders of dignity, privacy, and freedom for all. HRC will work to ensure the legislature sustains the Governor’s veto and gets back to work on policies that support all Kansas families, instead of discriminating against them.”

“It is impossible to overstate the harms this extremist legislation would visit on transgender Kansans and many others if allowed to take effect,” Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and health care strategist at Lambda Legal, added in a press release. “ SB244 would require transgender Kansans to use public facilities that do not align with who they are and to carry inaccurate and conflicting identity documents that cause confusion and expose them to harassment and abuse, and would put a target on their backs through a bounty system that will encourage extreme violations of their privacy by those seeking financial gain. Make no mistake, the unprecedented and unlawful bounty system in this legislation would expose all Kansans — not just those who are transgender — to intrusive and abusive violations of their privacy.”

Angelina Jolie Plans to Flee the Country This Year

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Angelina Jolie appears ready to close the chapter on her life in the United States, with her final obstacle to leaving set to be resolved in a few months.

The Eternals star has been waiting for twins Knox and Vivienne to turn 18 in July before making a long-considered move abroad, telling reporters at the San Sebastian Film Festival that while she still “loves” America, she no longer “recognize[s]” it the way she once did.

The comment underscored a shift that has been years in the making for the Academy Award winner, who has increasingly framed the U.S. as just one stop in a much more global life.

Jolie, 50, has been open about that mindset across multiple interviews. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2024, she described Los Angeles less as a permanent home and more as a practical base for raising her six children. Calling her multi-million dollar home “a place where I raise my children,” she said, before adding that the “humanity that I found across the world is not what I grew up with here.”

That global pull has long competed with the realities of her custody arrangement with ex-husband Brad Pitt. The former couple shares six children—Maddox, 24; Pax, 22; Zahara, 21; Shiloh, 19; and twins Knox and Vivienne, who turn 18 this summer. Until now, Jolie’s ability to relocate has been constrained by the need to remain close to Pitt, 61.

A source close to the star told People that the restriction is finally lifting. The insider said Jolie “never wanted to live in L.A. full-time” and has been quietly preparing for a move once her youngest children reached adulthood. With that milestone approaching, she is now reportedly taking concrete steps—including preparing to sell her Los Feliz estate.

Jolie purchased the $24.5 million home in 2017, a year after filing for divorce from Pitt. At the time, she told Page Six the decision was driven by proximity: she “wanted it to be close to their dad,” who lived just minutes away.

The property—featuring six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms—served as a central base during years of custody negotiations and legal disputes.

Now, that chapter appears to be ending. In a September 2025 interview with Variety, Jolie emphasized that she has “always lived internationally,” pointing to her network of family and friends across the globe.

If there is a frontrunner for her next home, it is Cambodia. Jolie has repeatedly described the country as deeply personal to her, dating back to her time filming 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film. It was there that Jolie adopted her eldest son, Maddox, in 2002 and has maintained close ties ever since.

Jolie has repeatedly referenced Cambodia as a place that feels like home “in my heart.”The star said she felt compelled to produce her 2017 film They Killed My Father about the Cambodian genocide after coming to fall “in love with its people,” describing “becoming a part of a Cambodian family” as life-changing.

n a separate interview with People, the actress dove deeper into her connection with Cambodia. Revealing that she and her son Maddox frequently travel back and forth, sometimes spending months there at a time—a reflection of the family’s enduring connection to the country.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Jolie’s team for comment.

Trump’s new State Dept. nominee said lesbian union leader should get death penalty

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Jeremy Carl, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, deleted thousands of social media posts before his nomination. One was a May 2023 post calling for the killing of Randi Weingarten, the lesbian president of the American Federation of Teachers, a major American labor union representing over 1.8 million professionals in education, healthcare, and public service.

In a May 2023 post, Carl wrote, “If the U.S. were a serious nation, Weingarten would be tried for crimes against America’s children and would get the death penalty.”

Right-wing critics hate Weingarten (who is a Democrat) for supporting school closures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, opposing the use of public taxpayer money for private “school choice” voucher programs, and speaking out against so-called “parents’ rights” groups that largely push anti-LGBTQ+ school policies.

Carl deleted this and thousands of other posts, including numerous racist posts saying that white people had “already surrendered” to Black people and ones that pushed the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, an antisemitic and white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims that a cabal of powerful Jewish people want to “replace” white Americans and Westerners with non-white immigrants and people of color (especially Black people and Muslims) to fundamentally change the nation’s racial makeup and political culture.

In a recent Senate hearing, Carl said he believes people of color are “erasing white culture,” but he struggled to define what white culture is. Carl’s nomination may fail, as Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) said he’d vote against him because of his long history of anti-semitic comments.

Adult trans patients left reeling after Massachusetts hospital cancels vaginoplasties without explanation

Read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Trans women in Massachusetts may be suffering the effects of the Trump administration’s campaign to erase transgender identity from American society, but their hospital won’t confirm or deny it.

Several trans women scheduled for vaginoplasties with a highly regarded doctor specializing in the gender-affirming procedure were informed over the last few weeks that their surgeries had been cancelled and they wouldn’t be able to reschedule them, WGBH reports.

“I’m crushed. I can’t stop crying,” said one patient identified as Avery, who used a pseudonym. “This surgery was life-changing because it finally gives me the body that’s right for me. It has been ripped away with no explanation or follow-up plan.”

Avery’s hospital is UMass Memorial Health in Worcester, Massachusetts, and her surgeon is Dr. Ashley Alford, who introduced an innovative vaginoplasty technique never before used in New England. The surgery involves utilizing abdominal tissue and robotic technology to create a more realistic and functional vagina than other common procedures produce.

Avery had spent months preparing for the surgery, including a switch to a more expensive insurance plan that would cover the procedure.

Then it was cancelled. Avery said she pressed hospital staff for answers and learned that all of Dr. Alford’s appointments had been cancelled. She received no other explanation.

Among the six patients of Dr. Alford’s that were interviewed, all said they’ve received calls in the last two weeks canceling their appointments at UMass; more are identified in a subreddit devoted to the situation, which one describes as “unbelievably confusing.”

Despite the abrupt cancellations, the UMass health system says it’s not curtailing gender-affirming care.

“Although appointments may at times need to be canceled or rescheduled due to the availability of a specific provider, nothing has changed in UMass Memorial Health’s commitment to providing comprehensive, evidence-based health care, including gender affirming care, to all members of our community,” the statement read.

Dr. Alford had no comment on the nixed appointments and procedures.

The second Trump administration has issued a wave of orders curtailing the rights of transgender people, including attempts to end gender-affirming care for minors (early with his executive order addressing so-called “Child Mutilation”) and later, in December, an announcement from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that any hospital providing gender affirming care for minors would lose Medicare and Medicaid funding.

UMass’s abrupt cancellations of surgeries for trans adults conjure a nightmare scenario for older patients reliant on gender-affirming care.

Chrissi Bates, an advocate for transgender healthcare and Alford’s first patient to undergo the advanced vaginoplasty procedure, sees a hidden hand behind Alford’s sudden unavailability.

“We all love Dr. Alford. We all doubt that it’s her that wants to leave,” said Bates, who planned on seeing Alford for post-op appointments. “It’s really disheartening to hear that UMass is just caving to this unjust kind of healthcare agenda that’s being pushed by the Trump administration.”

Most of all, the UMass patients in Worcester want answers.

“If it is Dr. Alford being pushed out due to concerns from the Trump administration, who’s to say that’s not going to happen in Boston?” said Kara Earp, a North Carolina transplant who moved to Massachusetts just for the gender-affirming care. Her appointment with Alford was cancelled, as well.

“I probably won’t actually be happy until I wake up from surgery and it’s all over with,” she said.

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