Citing “changing federal expectations,” the gender clinic at MultiCare’s Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital & Health Network in Tacoma has cut its waitlist for trans youth, according to an email the Health Network’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Barbara Thompson sent to staff this morning. It won't start new medical care for trans youth after September 12, but will continue providing hormones and puberty blockers to patients already receiving them.

According to the email obtained by The Stranger, Mary Bridge has provided children with puberty blockers and hormones for “many years,” but started a waitlist when “staffing challenges” prevented it from taking new patients. The hospital does not perform gender-affirming surgery, but the clinic’s website still says its multidisciplinary team includes

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