NYC leaders denounce hospital for handing over trans patient records to Trump administration

New York elected leaders slammed the Mount Sinai Health System after the medical provider said it would turn over records of transgender patients to the Trump administration.The New York City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus said such a betrayal of medical privacy would contribute to an increasingly hostile environment for trans youth.“Let us be clear: transgender children are not political targets. Their private medical information should be exactly that — private. It should never be treated as evidence in a politically driven investigation, and hospitals entrusted with their care have a crucial responsibility to protect their dignity, privacy, and safety,” the caucus said in a statement.“The same administration that has defied federal court orders 31 times for blatant corruption and illegal deportations in this term alone is now demanding healthcare records from hospitals providing life-saving care to vulnerable children and families already navigating profound fear and uncertainty. This is not about public safety. This is not about protecting children. It is about weaponizing the full force of the federal government to intimidate families out of seeking healthcare that is legal, protected, and life-saving.”Related: Mount Sinai Hospital drops gender-affirming care for trans teens, leaving New York families worriedThe statement came after parents of transgender children said representatives of the hospital had called to inform them that patient health information would be shared with the federal government, according to Gothamist.“I was blindsided by this because we're not even receiving care there anymore,” said Dawn Gabriel, the parent of a 17-year-old transgender patient previously receiving gender-affirming care. The disclosure marks the second major blow to transgender youth from Mount Sinai this year. In February, the hospital system announced it would stop providing gender-affirming care to minors, citing pressure from the Trump administration.Since