Legal Aid Society's Judith Goldner testifies on litigation and map concerns
Judith Goldner of the Legal Aid Society says Legal Aid was lead counsel in Cruz v. Zucker and is committed to gender-affirming care. She says Mount Sinai and NYU are dumping patients without continuity, supports Res 547, and is mostly supportive of Intro 949 but warns the map could lead to harassment and threats.
All right.
Anybody can start.
Can you hear me now?
My name is Judith Goldner.
I'm the attorney in charge of the Civil Law Reform Unit at the Legal Aid Society, and I want to thank the council for holding this very important oversight hearing.
I want to start by saying, you know, we at Legal Aid are very committed to ensuring that everyone who has gender dysphoria is
given access to the medically necessary care that they deserve.
We were lead counsel in Cruz v.
Zucker, which was our lawsuit against New York State to ensure gender-affirming care for folks who need that care.
We are obviously very concerned about not just what the Trump administration is trying to do here, but also that hospitals such as Mount Sinai and NYU
are dumping patients, they are not providing continuum care, everyone needs to know that that's not what's happening.
We appreciate that that care is still available for young people at the city hospitals.
We are a bit concerned, however, that
The $15 million is not going to go to care for young people, and it's care for young people that is most at risk right now.
So it's super important, I think, for the council to make it clear to the city that it's so critical for the city to continue to provide that care to folks who are not otherwise going to be able to access it.
We support, we're very supportive of Resolution 0547, which calls on the legislature to pass
A819 and S7985, which would ensure
which would establish a gender-affirming care program.
And we want to make sure that the state is going to continue to provide that care to people.
We are mostly supportive of Intro 0949.
We are somewhat concerned about the mapping part of this because it could...
Could lead to harassment.
threats and so we would be happy to work with the council on figuring out ways to you know allow people who should have access to information without
opening it up to people who might behave badly.
And thanks again for doing this.
We are always available to help folks with issues as they come up as well.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And we're eager to be in conversation and hear more.
I'm sure the sponsor of the bill is as well.
Thank you.
We will reach out.
Great.
Thank you.