Children's hospital in Boston denounces threats for promoting services for transgender youth

By Brandy Zadrozny and Phil McCausland -

Boston Children's Hospital has warned its employees of increased threats after far-right activists on social media began attacking the hospital with false claims about its treatment of transgender youth.

It's the latest in a series of attempts to target hospitals for their work with LGBTQ populations, adding to the current wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment that has hit libraries, schools and even a trans-inclusive spa. of the Angels.

Boston Children's Hospital's public relations office emailed employees guidance on how to respond to harassment and threats earlier this week, citing an

and emails sent to the hospital commenting on the treatment of transgender patients.” The email was confirmed to NBC News by a current employee. 

Boston Children's Hospital first became a target for activists in recent weeks, when widely followed social media accounts like LibsofTikTok, which has often promoted

discourse that falsely linked LGBTQ teachers and parents to the pedophilia, they began to make a variety of false claims.

One of the accusations said that the hospital offered gender-affirming hysterectomies to those under the age of 18. 

Exterior of Boston Children's Hospital.Alamy Stock Photo via NBC News

Similar bogus arguments were pushed by conservative influencers with millions of followers.

David J. Harris, podcaster and supplement seller, and activists such as Chris Elston, who is known as

for his anti-trans statements on billboards, are among the right-wing social media stars who have spread the allegations online. line.  

Last week, organizations that track disinformation debunked the claims of right-wing accounts, but many of those same people have continued to spread the lies.

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“In response to comments last week criticizing our Gender Multi-Specialty Services (GeMS)

Boston Children's Hospital said in an emailed statement.

"We are deeply concerned about these attacks on our doctors and staff fueled by misinformation and a lack of understanding and respect for our transgender community," the statement added.

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Videos from the Boston Children's Hospital YouTube account in which various doctors discuss services provided to trans patients were shared by the accounts to suggest that the Center for Gender Surgery performed genital surgeries on children.

The videos, which have since been removed from the hospital channel, included one titled "What does it mean to be transgender?"

and did not suggest that such surgeries be performed on minors. 

Boston Children's Hospital is home to the Multispecialty Gender Service, the nation's first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program, which has treated more than 1,000 families, according to its website.

Although the Center for Gender Surgery is located within the children's hospital, treatment is only offered to "eligible teens and young adults," according to the center's website.

"All genital surgeries are only performed on patients 18 years of age or older," reads the official site.

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A Twitter representative said they were investigating the harassment campaign. 

The medical center said in its statement that the posts

For hysterectomies and other genital surgeries performed as part of gender-affirming care, Children's Hospital requires that the patient be capable of self-consent.

The age of 18 is used to reflect the standard age of majority for medical decision-making.

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However, posts demonizing hospitals quickly spread through the far-right media ecosystem, promoted by media personalities like The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, and by conservative websites like The Post Millennial and The Daily Caller. 

Anti-transgender activists also targeted the doctors featured in Boston Children's Hospital YouTube videos, leaving vulgar and harassing comments on their social media accounts and flooding their online pages with negative reviews.

Some hospital staff have made their social media profiles private.

This is not the first time that far-right activists have targeted doctors and medical institutions, or even Boston Children's Hospital. 

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Lee Leveille, co-director of Health Liberation Now, a transgender rights advocacy group that investigates the policy's effects on transgender health, said the hospital was also targeted in May 2021 for providing affirming care. of gender amid a similar wave of harassment targeting medical facilities. 

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“The original organized network that made the jump to the clinic protests has slowed down a bit and is more decentralized,” Leveille said by email.

“Local foci continue to operate here and there, but they are less connected to an organized central drive than the original ones.

Now we see new faces joining the cause, like Matt Walsh and Libs from TikTok.”

In June, Chaya Raichik, the Brooklyn real estate agent behind the LibsofTikTok Twitter account, tweeted about a children's hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, for hosting a booth at a Pride event.

Earlier this month, Raichik and right-wing activist Christopher Rufo targeted a Pittsburgh children's hospital for its informative video on puberty blockers.

The tweets directed waves of harassment at the largest hospital accounts. 

Under a tweet from the Pittsburgh hospital about children with cancer, responses from commenters included: "Pedophiles" and "we will destroy you." 

The attack on children's hospitals is just the latest in a wave of online abuses targeting institutions that promote pro-LGBT ideas and events. 

“They have received an absolute torrent of abuse, often with real consequences, in person

,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyber ​​Law Clinic and an LGBTQ+ advocate. 

Caraballo cited recent anti-LGBT arson attacks in Baltimore and Brooklyn, widespread threats against organizers of Pride rallies and Drag Queen story hours, and cases where far-right hate groups have come forward to protest and were arrested for inciting violence. 

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“We have already had months and months of this reinforcing propaganda, that LGBTQ people are

, that they are pedophiles, that they are threats to children,” he said.

"It is very disturbing to see how people justify the attack on a children's hospital because of their transphobia and their hatred of trans people." 

Leveille and Ky Schevers, the other co-director of Health Liberation Now, said they feared violence could come next, targeting doctors, patients and medical facilities that provide gender-affirming care. 

Boston Children's Hospital said it was working with law enforcement to ensure the safety of its staff.

"We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms, and reject the false narrative on which they are based," the hospital said in its statement.

“We're working with law enforcement to protect our doctors, staff, patients, families and the greater Boston Children's community, and to hold criminals accountable.

We will continue to take all appropriate measures to protect our people."