ACT UP organizer Annabelle Ruggiero demands consequences for hospitals that folded
Annabelle Ruggiero says she helped organize the Mount Sinai protest and thanks Director Brown for attending. She supports Intro 949 but says such steps should have happened earlier, blames collective inaction, and demands public consequences for Mount Sinai and NYU, financial support for institutions that stand by patients, and taxing the rich to offset federal health care cuts.
Hello everyone, I'm Annabelle Ruggiero.
I'm strictly speaking on behalf of myself today, but I am an ACT UP rabble rouser who helped organize the protest at Mount Sinai that Director Brown spoke at.
And I'd like to take the opportunity to thank her publicly for being there.
To start, today's hearing and bills are great steps.
Intro 949 fulfills a demand our community has been asking for.
As someone who had the opportunity to advocate for this kind of resource, I'd like to personally thank Councilmember Shulman and her staff.
But these are steps that need to happen over a year ago.
The situation has, quite predictably, deteriorated rapidly over the past year.
A few short months ago, the governor became the likely culprit behind appropriations for gender-affirming care being cut from the state budget, and now two hospitals have folded to fascist inquisition.
I must admit, I am personally invested in inflicting political and reputational damage on both Mount Sinai and NYU Langone.
And yet, I find it hard to lay blame fully at their feet.
At the end of the day, they made a cruel calculation.
Either defy the feral government and rely on insufficient municipal funds to make up the difference, or abandon trans youth.
The context in local policy
the environment these calculations were made under is due to a collective failure.
To be blunt, this is the fault of the relative inaction by the state government, the city council, and both recent mayoralities, Adams and Mamdani.
Not them personally, but their mayoralities.
So, while I am happy with the legislation before us today, we demand more.
We demand far more.
We need to make a public example of both Mount Sinai and NYU Langone.
We need to financially support institutions who stand by their patients.
We need every fascist capitulator to know that the support of the people is predicated on them not folding.
We need a taxable rich to make up for federal cuts to everyone's health care.
And in these bleak times, we need you, the mayorality, the governor, and the AG to be proactive instead of reactive.
For a more concrete idea of what we can do, no more municipal funds to any discriminatory health care institutions.
Thank you.