New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has signed $8.9 million in contracts to provide child sex changes, putting the city at odds with the Trump administration’s Justice Department, which has launched a nationwide crackdown on such treatments for minors.
The contracts, which run through 2029, were awarded by the New York City Department of Health to two providers, LGBTQ-focused Callen-Lorde and the Nonprofit Organization for Philanthropic Initiatives, according to the New York Post.
The city’s public notice says the contracts cover the “prescription and administration of puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to minor patients for whom such services are medically necessary based on the prevailing standards of care.”
The notice states that the treatments will be provided by licensed medical professionals and must comply with state laws governing parental consent.
Mamdani’s administration is moving forward with the program as the Trump administration takes the opposite approach, with the Justice Department investigating hospitals and medical providers over child sex-change treatments, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries.
The DOJ has already reached agreements with several major health systems to end the provision of such treatments to minors.
Mount Sinai agreed in September to stop providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical procedures to children and adolescents following a federal investigation. The hospital also agreed to dedicate $2 million toward medical care for people dealing with consequences from treatments they received as minors. The Justice Department said its investigation involved potential violations of federal law, while Mount Sinai denied the allegations.
NYU Langone and UPMC likewise agreed to end pediatric gender-transition treatments under a September agreement with the DOJ. NYU agreed to pay $8.5 million as part of the resolution, while UPMC agreed to pay $950,000.
Critics of Mamdani’s administration argue that New York City is deliberately moving in the opposite direction from the federal government while continuing to make controversial treatments available to minors.
“They’re making an ideological decision instead of a medical decision,” New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said. “They’re trying to pull a fast one. New York City thinks it is its own national government. It further isolates us from the rest of the country.”
Kassar has also argued that minors should not receive such treatments without parental consent.
The city’s decision comes amid a broader national fight over whether children should receive medical interventions intended to alter their sex characteristics. Twenty-seven states have enacted laws restricting or banning certain gender-related medical interventions for minors, according to KFF, although some of those laws remain subject to litigation.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommends delaying gender-related breast, chest, genital and facial surgeries until patients are at least 19 years old.
The Mamdani administration’s contracts ensure that New York City will continue providing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to eligible minors even as the Trump administration and several major medical institutions move to restrict or end the treatments.
