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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alexander Harris, Interim Manager of Public Policy and Advocacy at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, on Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ+ Health Services
2:26:46
·
6 min
Alexander Harris from Callen-Lorde Community Health Center testifies on the critical importance of gender-affirming care and the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ health services due to federal policy changes and potential budget cuts. He shares his personal story of transition and emphasizes the need for continued funding to protect these essential services in New York City.
- Callen-Lorde has lost significant funding for LGBTQ health, HIV prevention, and research programs, particularly those focused on transgender youth.
- The recently passed federal budget reconciliation bill could lead to Medicaid cuts that would severely impact healthcare access for LGBTQ+ individuals.
- Harris urges the City Council to invest $15 million to safeguard gender-affirming care, $10 million for LGBTQ youth housing, and $10 million for a revitalized trans equity fund.
Alexander Harris
2:26:46
Good afternoon everyone and thank you to Chairperson Narcisse, Councilmember Brennan and Councilmember Rivera for helping us hearing today and allowing us to speak.
2:26:56
So my name is Alexander Harris.
2:26:57
Feel free to call me Ali.
2:26:59
And I'm the interim manager of public policy and advocacy at Callanborg Community Health Center, which is a health center that is providing affirming care to all that are LGTQ plus folks who are living with HIV and anyone who comes through our doors, regardless of the ability to pay.
2:27:16
We're an FQHC for a fully qualified health center, and we are operating still with three sites across the city.
2:27:22
I want to thank you all for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of our patients and staff and our stakeholders that we work with on a day to day basis.
2:27:30
Now I'm going to take a moment of vulnerability, so bear with me.
2:27:33
Over sixteen years ago, I personally arrived in New York City in the middle of the Great Recession.
2:27:39
I had maybe $200 in my bank account, aka to my name, a promise of a minimum wage job, and a friend's couch to sleep on for a few weeks.
2:27:48
In this moment of my life, the only certainty I knew was that I needed to medley transition to survive whatever challenges came my way.
2:27:56
Without health insurance benefits, Callan Lord enrolled me as a patient without hesitation.
2:28:01
In addition to starting me on gender affirming hormone therapy, I received essential services otherwise inaccessible to me because I was uninsured.
2:28:08
Thanks to gender affirming care, I managed to obtain my master's in public health, and I still give back to New York City's communities as a community based health center, a public servant at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, a program administrator, and a policy advocate for gender affirming health care benefits.
2:28:28
I am living testament to why gender affirming health care matters.
2:28:32
Without it, I would not be living the life in service to LGBTQ New Yorkers, let alone speaking with you all today on this on this matter.
2:28:41
Over the past four months, I'm sure you're aware, federal policy changes, executive orders, administrative downsizing, programmatic budget cuts, and research grant terminations demonstrate a clear message to transgender and gender diverse communities right here in New York.
2:28:56
We are not people, and our lives are expendable.
2:29:00
Due to these rapid changes, institutions like Cowan Lord face new struggles in addition to supporting our transgender and gender diverse patients living in a state of fear, abject panic, and sheer anxiety in anticipation of not knowing what's going happen the next day.
2:29:15
Funding previously available for L.
2:29:17
P.
2:29:17
Hugh health, HIV prevention, and health research has evaporated.
2:29:21
Calin Lord alone has already lost half a million dollars annually in programming and $1,500,000 in research grants specifically for trans specific HIV prevention, mostly focusing on adolescents ages 13 to 24.
2:29:34
We expect this dedicated funding for transgender diverse New Yorkers will continue to dwindle across all social services.
2:29:42
With the proposed budget reconciliation bill in Congress, which has now actually passed, Medicaid cuts will devastate New York's safety net institutions further.
2:29:51
As you may be aware, in New York City alone, nearly 850,000 residents, which translates to 2,300 or more of our patients at present, and millions of billable hours and visits across our health care services, will lose health insurance coverage completely.
2:30:08
Buried within this bill's reconciliation language, I want to note two harmful measures that really affect our folks at Cowan Lord and our diverse New Yorkers across the city.
2:30:17
Specifically, Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender transition procedures for minors will be completely prohibited.
2:30:23
ACA marketplace plans will be included from including coverage on gender transition procedures as an essential health benefit, which will specifically affect Callon Lord, but also our health centers across the country offering care.
2:30:37
Despite these threats to our patients, Callon Lord remains dedicated to serving our, Callan Ward continues to remain dedicated to our 23,000 patients annually.
2:30:45
And what I want to make a note here too is that this is not inconsequential.
2:30:51
This care we're talking about, actually offering it at primary care level, lowers emergency room visits, improves chronic disease management, and keeps our people living with HIV, our patients living with HIV, which is a we have so much activism around New York City and globally virally suppressed.
2:31:08
We have this evidence from our data here in New York City and nationally and even globally suggesting that we are able to control and provide a better level of care and life for folks broadly.
2:31:19
And our local evidence backs this up.
2:31:22
When I mentioned our twenty three thousand LGBTQ patients annually, I wanna recognize that we have over 8,000 gender gender diverse, transgender, non binary patients.
2:31:31
We remain steadfast in our mission, and we cannot offset these harms without your support.
2:31:36
And I urge you as New York City Council to invest in us and invest in trans futures, which would mean $15,000,000 to safeguard gender affirming care for institutions like Cal and Lord, like H and H, and the folks across the city who really provide these services of care.
2:31:50
Dollars 10,000,000 to expand housing for LGBTQ youth, will be further mitigated, or further erased or decreased significantly nationally, which means New York City will have a harder capacity to address those concerns, let alone address the probably rising threat to them broadly.
2:32:05
And we're also asking for $10,000,000 for a revitalized trans equity fund that prioritizes trans led organizations because Callan Lord is one institution, and we are collaborators, and we work with our stakeholders across the city in order to ensure that every person's care is taken care of.
2:32:21
When I say we do case management services, I mean housing, I mean enrollment and benefits, I mean things far beyond the services that we provide, which typically are about primary care, dental, behavioral health, etcetera.
2:32:32
But we can't do it all.
2:32:34
If I don't need to the things the pantry for their food or otherwise, we can put them there, but we are not the ones who are able to support those services directly, let alone take on the financial disparity we're going to experience with these Medicaid cuts and these cuts for services that are essential to gender affirming care.
Mercedes Narcisse
2:32:50
As New And a real conclusion for us?
Alexander Harris
2:32:52
Yes.
2:32:52
Thank you.
2:32:53
As New Yorkers, we all have an ethical responsibility to protect each other, and now is the time to act.
2:32:57
I really want to thank you for your time today, the time you've offered us.
2:33:00
And Calmore provided its written testimony along with mine for the record.
2:33:03
Again, thank you so much for listening.