Transgender activists injected themselves with cross-sex hormones outside NYU Langone Health in a staged protest that has circulated widely online.
The demonstration unfolded days after the Manhattan hospital reached an $8.5 million settlement with President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, agreeing to stop providing sex-change treatments to patients under 18. The video, posted to X by Freedom News TV, shows masked individuals filling syringes and injecting themselves on the sidewalk, including one person in a wheelchair, while supporters held signs reading “Protect Trans Kids” and “Resist.”
“We’re taking our HRT here at the doors of the people who have given up to demystify, normalize, and celebrate our trans bodies in the face of NYU’s cowardice,” one protester announced through a bullhorn, reading from a prepared script and referring to hormone replacement therapy drugs.
Other demonstrators displayed a hand-made banner declaring “No compliance with Trump’s bias.” The crowd looked on as the injections proceeded in the outdoor stunt.
The DOJ announced the NYU Langone agreement last week alongside a separate settlement with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which agreed to pay $950,000. Both investigations examined whether the institutions had illegally performed what the DOJ termed “sex-rejecting procedures” on children, a phrase that contrasts with the “gender affirming care” language used by proponents of the treatments.
“Under the agreements, NYU and UPMC will cease providing these dangerous interventions to minors, which include administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and performing surgical procedures,” the DOJ release stated.
The department emphasized that neither hospital admitted liability and that both deny wrongdoing. Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the settlements as protective measures, saying in the DOJ’s statement: “The Department of Justice is fighting to protect our nation’s children and working tirelessly to reach agreements with hospitals to end so-called ‘gender affirming care’ for minors.”
He added: “Today’s resolutions send a clear message: hospitals that target children in these practices and then fraudulently obtain payment for the procedures will be held to account.”
The video drew sharp condemnation from conservative commentators online. “This is so obviously a mental illness,” wrote Matt Van Swol. “You cannot watch this video and conclude anything else.”
Author Wesley Yang offered a broader critique of the demonstration, posting: “This is a truly crazed movement that has successfully normalized cultish pseudo-medical practices from the outermost fringe of human extremity as a part of suburban elementary school life across America,” He continued: “Surely everyone watching these bizarre spectacles understands this.”
Commentator Tanya Tay Posobiec wrote separately that she saw “addicts. Addicted to HRT. Addicted to attention. Addicted to constant validation.”
The NYU Langone settlement marks one of the most significant financial penalties yet in the Trump administration’s push to restrict transition-related medical care for minors, with the hospital’s $8.5 million payment far exceeding the UPMC agreement. The administration has pursued similar investigations into other medical institutions providing these treatments.
The demonstration followed the DOJ’s announcement of the twin settlements with NYU Langone and UPMC, both major academic medical centers that had been under federal investigation for their pediatric gender medicine programs. The agreements require both institutions to halt puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures for patients under 18.