Democratic Socialist Running for Wisconsin Governor Calls Hospitals 'Cowardly' for Refusing Pediatric Sex Changes
Americans who’ve been watching the Democratic Socialists of America take over the Democratic Party should be watching Wisconsin.
A DSA-backed contender for the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nomination in the Badger State — a Democrat with a real chance to win the nod — demonstrated on Sunday just how far left she really is.
And what that could mean for the country.
Appearing on a podcast called “Community Conversations with Brix Cider” — a leftist program linked to the Southwest Wisconsin Area Progressives group — Francesca Hong stood foursquare in support of hospitals providing so-called “gender affirming care” for sexually confused teenagers.
And she branded the hospitals who refuse to provide it as “cowardly.”
Socialist candidate Francesca Hong says Wisconsin hospitals that have stopped transing kids are “cowardly” pic.twitter.com/I3VqVA2uaL
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 13, 2026
“This attack on our trans kids, especially, you know, to see what’s happening with healthcare — gender-affirming care, that is healthcare — coming down from our hospitals,” she said.
“It’s cowardly what’s happening, and it’s important that elected officials and folks with the platform speak up and speak out to ensure that all of our students feel safe, can be themselves, and know that they have a governor that’s in their corner.”
What Hong is talking about is a decision in January by two of the state’s largest hospital systems — Children’s Wisconsin and UW Health University Hospital — to stop providing sexual transition treatments to pediatric patients.
To be clear, this wasn’t exactly a moral decision on the hospitals’ part.
According to a Wisconsin Public Radio report in January, the hospitals made the decision after President Donald Trump’s administration vowed to withhold federal Medicaid and Medicare funding to institutions that provided the treatment.
So, as always, follow the money.
But what Hong’s statement underscores is the disregard leftists have for the system of government in the United States. Donald Trump was able to make that decision about federal funding because he was elected by the people to the White House in 2024.
What Hong is blasting as “cowardly” is a sound business decision by two medical systems to acknowledge that elections have consequences — and those consequences very much include policy decisions about what kind of “healthcare” the American government should support.
And here’s the kicker. Hong might be a bananas leftist — even for a Democrat — but she’s acceptable enough to at least some Wisconsin voters that she actually holds a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly (the name for the legislature’s lower chamber) representing part of the state capital of Madison.
In the primary race, she’s also polling well in a crowded field, according to The New York Times, and she came in second in a straw poll among delegates at the state Democratic Party convention in June.
So, she’s a legitimate contender for the nomination — and with Wisconsin being a battleground state, where Democrats hold the governor’s seat and Republicans hold the legislature, the possibility she could be the state’s next governor can’t be discounted. (On the bright side, Trump won the state in 2024.)
For most sane Americans, the idea of a “trans” teen is an absurdity — sexual confusion among young people isn’t unusual, particularly among young people growing up in a society saturated with sex. If nothing else, the fact that it has never, in thousands of years of human civilization, been a serious consideration until now should tell the intelligent observer something.
For any ethical healthcare provider to be countenancing irreversible medical practices — from “puberty blocking” drugs to genital or breast surgeries — based on the transitory emotions of teenagers should be beyond the pale.
But the increasingly leftward drift of the Democratic Party has put it on exactly the opposite side of reason in this case.
It also puts it on the side opposed to the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest organization of physicians, and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, as The New York Times reported in February. Both groups say the practice should generally be deferred until adulthood.
(To be clear, there might be an element of “follow the money” there, too.)
The American Academy of Pediatrics has no blanket stance, holding that decisions should be made on a case by case basis, the newspaper reported.
The DSA has been on a roll this year in taking on the Democratic establishment, from Zohran Mamdani’s New York City to deep blue Denver, Colorado.
In the Aug. 11 Democratic primary in Wisconsin, Hong could well keep that trend alive.
The rest of the country should be watching.
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