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Wednesday, September 17, 2025
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Activists hold rally outside University Hospital in support of gender-affirming care
“You speak of values, but where were your values when my daughter lost her care?” GLENN HEDIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Car horns blared for hours near the University Hospital Thursday afternoon as drivers honked in solidarity with approximately 300 demonstrators — students, parents of transgender children and other University of Michigan community members — protesting Michigan Medicine’s decision to cease providing gender-affirming care to individuals under the age of 19. Organized by the Huron Valley Democratic Socialists of America and the University’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, as well as the Trans Unity Coalition, the rally drew a diverse crowd holding pride flags and signs that read “First Do No Harm” and “I Love My Trans Son,” among other slogans. University alum Kami Michels, the parent of a trans child and a board member of the Jim Toy Community Center, said she was not pleased with Michigan Medicine’s decision. “President Grasso, don’t send us another email about how much you care about civil rights,” Michels said. “You say you won’t tolerate totalitarianism; then why are you letting it run your hospital? You speak of values, but where were your values when my daughter lost her care? Your silence speaks louder than your slogans. You should be ashamed.” The decision will cut off access to gender-affirming care for a large number of transgender youth, given that Michigan Medicine is
Akul Gunukula/DAILY Ann Arbor community members rally to protest against Michigan Medicine’s decision to end gender-affirming care at Fuller Road and Medical Center Drive Thursday afternoon.
one of the leaders in the country and state in hospital rankings and services. Mary Masson, Michigan Medicine’s director of public relations, wrote in an email to The Michigan Daily that the University had been pressured into this decision by a federal subpoena and would work to support impacted individuals. “We recognize the gravity and impact of this decision for our patients and our community,” Masson wrote. “We are working closely with all those impacted, and we will continuously support the well-being of our patients,
their families, and our teams.” Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi also spoke at the rally. Rabhi said he felt by increased surveillance and cuts to programs that promote inclusion, the University’s Board of Regents is capitulating to fascism. “When you cower to fascism, you become a fascist,” Rabhi said. “They took away (diversity, equity and inclusion). They militarized campus, put cameras everywhere and made it a police state so that students and workers and faculty can’t express themselves anymore. Now they’re coming after our trans youth in this community.”
Music, Theater & Dance senior Grace Jun, co-chair of the YDSA at the University, said Michigan Medicine should not surrender to the Trump Administration’s policies on transgender issues. “The Trump administration is a monster that is trying to systemically kill communities of people by taking away necessities for their survival and well-being,” Jun said. “YDSA demands that (the University) take an active stance against the Trump administration, fight for life-saving genderaffirming care. This is their legal and moral obligation to fulfill;their actions are hurting children.”
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UMich community reacts to death of Charlie Kirk, talks next steps in addressing gun violence
“Gun violence does not care about your political affiliation, it doesn’t care about your age, it doesn’t care about where you live. It comes for everyone.” AANYA PANYADAHUNDI & DOMINIC APAP Daily Staff Reporters
On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk, political activist and Turning Point USA founder, was shot and killed at Utah Valley University while on his American Comeback Tour. Turning Point USA at the University of Michigan held a vigil at the Diag flagpole to honor Kirk’s memory that evening. That same day, there was a shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado. Both events have sparked conversation among the University and national community surrounding gun safety measures and political polarization in the U.S. In an interview with The Michigan Daily at the vigil, LSA senior Sarah Baldwin, vice president of the U-M Turning Point USA chapter, said Kirk’s death was a shocking tragedy. “I think all the chapters are a little bit in shock because we know there’s so much political polarization in the country and that it’s been so tense in the last decade or so, but it’s just still shocking when things like this happen,” Baldwin said. “You never want to believe it can go that far — that we can be that angry with each other, that we can dehumanize each other so much. I think everybody hopes that, at the very least, this can maybe provide some kind of point of human empathy and community.” LSA junior Aubrey Greenfield, March for Our Lives at UMich
board member, said in an interview with The Daily that while Kirk’s death was highly publicized, she felt other victims of gun violence did not receive the same public sympathy. “I think it just shows how politically polarized our environment is right now,” Greenfield said. “It really shows how Kirk is a very big name in political media and because of that, everyone knows (him), but they don’t know that 4-year-old who got shot, or they don’t know that brother or that sister who got killed in a small community in California.” Greenfield was also critical of President Donald Trump’s “Honoring the Memory of Charlie Kirk” proclamation, specifically his call to lower all flags to half-mast until Sept. 14, contrasted with his reaction to former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman’s death on June 14 and other gun violence victims. “What about the families who lose kids or uncles or parents to gun violence every year?” Greenfield said. “The flags aren’t lowered for them; people badmouth them. People have conspiracy theories that certain shootings didn’t happen — where’s the respect for all of these kids and the outrage for all of these children to the same degree that there was for Charlie Kirk?” Greenfield also noted that the Evergreen High School shooting was the 47th school shooting of 2025. “On Sept. 10, when Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, on that
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same day, Evergreen High School in Colorado also had a shooting that wounded two students,” Greenfield said. “It just shows you that gun violence does not care about your political affiliation, it doesn’t care about your age, it doesn’t care about where you live. It comes for everyone.” At the vigil, Baldwin said not all students in the University’s Turning Point USA chapter agreed with Kirk on all topics, but admired his commitment to public debate and dialogue. “Debate’s important — he really tried to help foster that,” Baldwin said. “Whether you agreed or not, he wanted to have the dialogue to make sure we saw each other as people and had those different viewpoints and different feelings and things. People are people — they are not walking political party platforms — so we’re going to try to carry on that legacy.” In discussing next steps, Greenfield said cooperation across the aisle is key, commenting on the United States’ large gun culture and arguing that solutions must establish a culture of gun safety while still protecting the Second Amendment. “It also involves collaboration, and not just from both sides of the political aisle, but also with responsible gun dealers and owners to find solutions,” Greenfield said. “For example, one that has been proposed is having some of these gun dealers go through suicide prevention training to be able to recognize
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signs, so that if somebody comes in to purchase a gun they can go, ‘wait, we want to make sure you’re purchasing it for the right reason, and not because you want to harm yourself or others.’” Justin Heinze, faculty lead for Public Health IDEAS for Preventing Firearm Injury and associate professor of health behavior and health equity, said in an interview with The Daily the topic of guns has become an increasingly polarizing issue for people to talk about. “My colleague — Allison Miller, in the School of Public Health — has found that framing the conversation in a safety context, rather than harm, is really important to parents, and when we think about creating safer spaces, they’re more willing to talk about their firearms,” Heinze said. “At a policy level, you’re trying to reach across both aisles to make sure that policies are recognizing the rights of gun owners as well as those of citizens.” Greenfield said there also needs to be an emphasis on gun violence research in the United States, citing the $158 million in grants for gun violence prevention cut by the Trump administration, which subsequently closed the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Heinze said these previous investments were hopeful for gun violence prevention initiatives. CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
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Activists have previously criticized the University for restricting student protests by suspending a campus activist group, pursuing disciplinary charges against demonstrators and retroactively adjusting their Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Jun said she believed the University’s actions are motivated by greed. “To the Board of Regents: you continue to disappoint and enrage your students and workers by actively trying to oppress your community members’ right to the freedom of speech and right to protest,
but anything for the precious endowment and money, right?” Several speakers at the rally proposed strategies to respond to the University. Michels said alumni should financially boycott the University. “You fucked with our kids, and now we are coming for your pocketbook,” Michels said. “We will not spend one more dime on Michigan football tickets. We will not donate one more dollar to the Alumni Association. Not a single cent of our money will go to you, because we know that’s all you really care about.” Rahbi told the crowd that another mode of protest Michigan residents have is to vote out the current regents. “Every two years, you have an opportunity to elect regents,” Rahbi said. “Use that opportunity to hold them accountable. If they want to bow down to fascists, if they want to bow down to Donald Trump, if they want to bow down to an administration that’s more interested in billionaires and their profits than they are in average, everyday people like those of us standing here, they’re going to have a moment of reckoning coming soon.” In an interview with The Daily, LSA senior Pragya Choudhary said he was disappointed in the University. “They made the decision because they’re scared, because they’re cowards,” Choudhary said. “Instead of holding to the values of art, science and most importantly, truth, they would rather fall to ignorance and, frankly, stupidity and mendacity.”
University of Michigan visiting scholar sentenced to time served for smuggling case
Visiting scholar from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology sentenced to three months in jail and to return to China after pleading no contest. MICAYLA HORWITZ Daily Staff Reporter
On Wednesday, Chengxuan Han, University of Michigan visiting scholar from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, was sentenced to her time served — a total of three months in jail — and will return to China after pleading no contest in August to three smuggling charges and to making false statements to United States Custom and Border Protection officers. The sentence comes after Han was arrested at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in June for lying to Border Protection about packages that she had previously sent to individuals associated with a U-M lab in 2024 and 2025. The packages contained a growth medium used in the cultivation of nematodes — a kind of roundworm — as well as DNA material. The Exchange Visitor Program at the University is meant to promote international educational and cultural exchange between professors, researchers, short-
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term scholars and specialists who are given the opportunity to study and work at the University. Any researcher who comes to the University is required to comply with both federal and University regulations when handling biological material. Han’s defense attorneys, Sara Garber and Benton Martin, said in the sentencing memorandum that the government’s accusations are misguided, as Han routinely sends and receives packages with biological materials across the world, and the government overstated the seriousness of Han’s actions. “Even if Ms. Han was negligent or failed to obtain the proper paperwork required by the United States for shipping materials—she made a mistake,” the memorandum read. “A mistake she has absolutely taken to heart and learned from. She did not, however, commit a criminal offense as charged by the government, certainly not with knowledge she was violating the law or with the intent to defraud the government.” CONTINUED AT MICHIGANDAILY.COM
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