Wren Galloway describes compounded barriers for unhoused trans youth

Good afternoon, Chair Caban, Perez, and all the other council members that are here with us today.

My name is Wren Galloway, and I serve as the Advocacy Manager at the LA4NA Center, which is the nation's largest provider for LGBTQ unhoused youth.

Also a proud member of the NYC Trans and Queer Coalition.

I want to amplify what our other members said and really strongly amplify what the youth panel said as well.

It was a really strong testimony from our youth and invite folks to really marinate in what they not only said, but listen and believe what they said as well.

But what we know here is gender-affirming care is medically necessary, evidence-based health care recognized by every major medical association.

We also cannot separate gender-affirming care from mental health care.

Without access to mental health care, we cannot fully support the mental health of transgender and gender nonconforming youth.

And without accessible affirming care, we cannot fully support their gender-affirming expansion as well.

As somebody that works with transgender and gender nonconforming youth all the time, as we had to unfortunately hear, we know that folks struggle with gender dysmorphia, things like suicide and amplified anxiety trying to receive these services.

So every day we try to work not to remove these opportunities from them.

So I simply wanted to invite people in to accept that these things are not only happening, but really think about how people are getting to their appointments, how people are understanding their identities as they're navigating these.

healthcare systems.

For many, there are barriers that are compounded by things like homelessness, immigration status, and unstable healthcare coverage.

Delays are interrupted, which really removes care and postpones treatment, which creates fear, uncertainty, and worsens mental health conditions.

As attacks continue in this country, I want to really invite us into a couple questions I have for council here.

So we can try to start to remove these gaps together.

Are there enough affirming care providers to meet this demand?

Which neighborhoods continue to lack services?

How long are young people waiting for affirming mental health care?

And how are the city agencies measuring whether access to gender-affirming care is improving in our health care systems?

As New York continues to strengthen access to care, we encourage the city to continue to prioritize the strong privacy and security protections for those patients and health care professions.

In today's climate, these safeguards are being taken away, and these personal informations are essential to making sure people are protected.

So I really want to just drop in lastly.

So the coalition is supporting Intro 949, but we need to make sure that not only is this resource regularly updated, but we need to make sure that there are barriers to care and making sure there are protections there.

So information alone is not enough, but making sure that that information is not being shared out to those that should not be receiving it.

It must be paired with continued investments in our provider's capacity, affirming mental health services and healthcare navigations, a community-based organization.

organizations that young people already trust.

Every transgender and gender non-conforming young person deserves timely, affordable, affirming care, as you all know.

So I appreciate your time today.

I will continue to add more into my written, but thank you so much.