RFA Leads March to Sutter Health Offices

Written By Arne Johnson

On Dec. 8, after two weeks of trying (and failing) to communicate with Sutter Health, 150 parents, youth, and allies rallied to protest Sutter’s abrupt, illegal stop to providing gender-affirming care for trans youth. What happened next was unprecedented.

The vanguard of the march pauses for a photo before continuing on to Sutter Health’s corporate headquarters in Emeryville (in background). All images ©Bart Nagel Photography. Media may request permission to reprint

Posted Dec. 12, 2025

Background: Read RFA’s media statement: Rainbow Families Action Demands Sutter Health Reverse Course on Ending Gender-Affirming Care for Minors 

On December 8, in response to Sutter Health’s abrupt and cruel decision to end pediatric gender-affirming care for trans youth, approximately 150 Rainbow Families Action members and allies marched from Bay Street to Sutter Health’s corporate offices in Emeryville in a powerful celebration and protest. We called on Sutter Health to live up to its mission of “caring for our patients first” by continuing to provide this life-saving, evidence-based medical care for trans patients of all ages, to reaffirm its stated values of compassion and integrity, and to follow state law in rejecting unjust discrimination in healthcare. 

The rally was supported by community activist Honey Mahogany, along with local clergy, healthcare providers, representatives from Indivisible, Bay Resistance, the California Nurses Association, PFLAG, FUTR, and Jewish Voices for Peace, as well as scores of parents, caregivers and the trans youth whose care and well-being is under dire threat by such actions. 

The group first gathered at the Shellmound Street shopping center. Clergy member Devlyn Bohman acknowledged the sacred land on which they all stood, where several Native burial grounds had been leveled and desecrated by colonization. They reminded the crowd that Native peoples have embraced transgender, “two spirit” people, for centuries, until colonizers sought to eradicate those beliefs along with many others. 

“This land has known transness long before it knew transphobia,” Bohman said, asking those two-spirit ancestors to watch over the rally.       

Bay Street shoppers clapped and filmed, and cars in rush hour traffic honked their enthusiastic support as the group marched to Powell Street and under Highway 80. On the steps of Sutter’s corporate offices, RFA advocate and rally organizer Arne Johnson thanked the crowd for showing up to fight for our youth. Mahogany read heartbreaking testimonies from Rainbow Families whose children had blossomed thanks to the Sutter care that is now under threat of being taken away. 

Woman speaking with microphone

Honey Mahogany, Director of San Francisco’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, spoke at the rally and read testimonials from Sutter families

Next up at the mic was Sutter Health nurse Kate, followed by trans activist (and RFA parent) Calder Storm, teen RFA member Eric, and Reverend Dr Megan Rohrer, whose hilarious and inspiring remarks closed the event. All articulated the dangers that trans youth face in this time of unprecedented attack, as well as affirmed how important it was to look for and celebrate joy — wherever it may be found. 

“Because we’re about love, not hate,” said Rohrer.

The Reverend Dr Megan Rohrer

With chants, signs, and fiery speeches, participants made their wishes clear: it is urgent that Sutter and other healthcare providers resist the illegal, cruel, and scientifically unsound demands made by the federal executive branch. Gender-affirming care not only for youth, but also for trans adults, is already a target — as soon will be reproductive care, measles and other vaccines, and any other types of medicine the administration would like to curtail in all states, even ones where they are protected by state law and voter majorities.

Updates

As of Dec. 12, 2025: Sutter originally told its staff that it would end GAC on Dec. 10. Although Sutter leadership has not replied to email inquiries by Rainbow Families Action, RFA has heard from Sutter families and staff that this care will in fact continue, with no new end date given. RFA and a band of loving Sutter patients and allies did the near impossible: We stopped a major healthcare system from shuttering gender-affirming care for minors. 

Dec. 9: The National Union of Healthcare Workers released a statement calling on Sutter Health to preserve gender affirming care for anyone under 19.

Media Coverage

RFA’s Sutter rally and the larger threat Sutter’s decision represents were widely covered by media, including on the front page of the Dec. 10 issues of The San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Area Reporter: 

What You Can Do: 

  • Immediately contact Sutter leadership and remind them that the CMS rule proposal is NOT YET LEGALLY BINDING. You can use our email template and contact info. 

  • Contact the Attorney General’s Office to request that future illegal discrimination in healthcare will be addressed, per AG Rob Bonta’s own November 13 “Know Your Rights” directive, which made it clear that “California law prohibits healthcare providers and insurers from discriminating or denying healthcare services to a patient for being transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, or intersex, or due to a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.” 

  • Send a thank you to any local gender-affirming care providers you know at California’s large healthcare organizations

  • Follow Rainbow Families on LinkedIn and Instagram — Like and share our posts to help build awareness.

All images: ©Bart Nagel Photography. Media may request permission to reprint

Arne Johnson
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