BOSTON – On Feb. 7, Protect Trans Futures, Boston Dyke March, and a collective of other BIPOC and LGBTQ+ organizations gathered on the Boston Common for the March For Trans Futures.
The event began at Brewer Fountain in the Boston Commons and featured speakers from PTF, who shared their stories with attendees, outlining the importance of advocacy for transgender youth.
Following a series of speakers, the group marched to the front of the State House. There they read a list of demands called the Transgender Health Shield that was created by the coalition of activist groups led by PTF. The demands include a legislative package that addresses building public clinics, funding existing providers, and implementing shield and anti-discrimination laws.
March organizers provided more background on their new agenda in interviews with BINJ.News prior to the action.
When Fenway Health announced that it would not be able to provide gender-affirming care to patients 19 and younger, Teddy Walker, one of the founders of Protect Trans Futures, felt “devastated.”
The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services, released a statement in September 2025 announcing that it would “deprioritize programs that engage,” in gender affirming care for children.
Serving about 5,000 transgender patients in Boston in 2023, Fenway Health is well-known within the local LGBTQ community as a place to receive care.
Walker was one of those people who was given the opportunity to have gender-affirming care in Massachusetts as a minor, they said. With that life-saving experience no longer being supported by the federal government, they believe that action is up to their community.
“When I first moved here, like four years ago, everyone was saying, like it’s safe here, like our healthcare will be protected no matter what. So this is about us, the transgender community, telling our leaders what we need to be safe.”
Garnering support from other local activist groups, the march highlighted the intersectional impact of striking down care for minors as “[The Trump Administration’s] first line of attack,” said Hamel, a committee member with Boston Dyke March.
“The end goal is to make it impossible for trans people to exist in public. And like, one of the ways you do that is by denying trans people the right to exist. You know trans healthcare is just like any other healthcare. It’s extremely necessary, and it’s life saving, Hamel concluded.
