News Items - September 19, 2026
Editor's Note: The disability community is increasingly preferring to use identity-first language (disabled person) in place of person-first language (person with a disability). This is because many in the community view disability as being a core component of identity, much like race and gender. Some members of the community, such as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, still prefer person-first language. Both should be considered valid. Articles shared in this newsletter may contain one or the other (or both) depending on the author's preference, and if they themselves have a disability.
As Massachusetts Hospitals Bow to Trump, These Organizers Are Fighting to Protect Trans Futures by Quispe López on September 18, 2026 at Them
"Organizers tell Them that their goal is to push the state’s attorney general, who assumed office in 2023, to pursue legal action against hospitals that have ceased providing gender-affirming care to trans youth in the wake of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Following mounting pressure from the Trump Administration on hospitals across the country, over the last year, Fenway Health, Outer Cape Health Services and Baystate Health, and have all ended their gender-affirming care programs for trans people under 19 in the case of the first two, and 18 in the last, meaning that trans youth across wide swaths of Massachusetts cannot get access to HRT."
Editors Note: Visit Protect Trans Futures for more information.
As Medicaid Changes Near, Concerns Mount That People With Disabilities Will Lose Coverage by Michelle Diament on September 18, 2026 at Disability Scoop
" “This updated guidance from CMS does attempt to provide more clarity, but doesn’t undo the overreach of the initial proposed final rule that is causing confusion for states, families and people with disabilities,” said Nicole Jorwic, chief program officer at Caring Across Generations. “Congress wrote a broad, clinically grounded definition of medical frailty into law specifically to protect people with serious conditions and disabilities. What we’re seeing now is the administration narrowing that definition through sub-regulatory guidance, without the transparency or accountability of formal rulemaking.” "
Is Meta Using Disabled People to Promote Its Glasses? by Julia Métraux on September 17, 2026 at Mother Jones
"But disabled people, like anyone else, may not want to be filmed by strangers in their day-to-day lives—and are uniquely affected by surveillance in ways that predate smart glasses. Insurance companies have surveilled disability claimants through the use of private investigators. Disabled people seeking accommodations at work face stifling scrutiny; the rise of “bossware,” surveillance technology used to monitor employees, has an outsized impact on disabled people."
Parents of Trans Kids Slam Mount Sinai for Permanently Ending Trans Youth Care Shireen Akram-Boshar on September 15, 2026 at Truthout
"Trying to access trans youth care in the Trump era has been “dystopian,” J said – and difficult to explain to her 12-year-old child. “I don’t want to scare her. All of this stuff is happening around her and we’re just doing our best to protect her. But when we hear things like [the DOJ is asking the hospital for] a list, we imagine the worst. Are we going to get rounded up and thrown in a cage like what ICE is doing? That’s the kind of stuff your mind goes to.” "
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