Families of transgender kids are suing Children’s Hospital Colorado, saying that the hospital’s decision to suspend gender-affirming care for minors violates a state anti-discrimination law

Inside the stilled courtroom, an attorney asked a simple question and the mother on the witness stand began to cry.

Where is your daughter right now?

The question came during a hearing this week in Denver District Court in a lawsuit over Children’s Hospital Colorado’s suspension of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, a decision Children’s made in the face of escalating threats from the federal government.

The plaintiffs, including the mother who was testifying, argue that the suspension is a profound betrayal of vulnerable young patients that violates state antidiscrimination law.

“In this case,” attorney Paula Greisen, who represents the plaintiffs, said Thursday, “the victims are coming to the court saying, ‘Please enforce the rule of law and stop the attack on the transgender community.’”

They asked a judge to require Children’s to resume providing gender-affirming care. A decision is expected within the next week.

Children’s, however, argues that doing so could throw the hospital into a buzzsaw of federal punishment, including being kicked out of the Medicaid system, dropped by private insurers and stripped of its accreditation. In the most extreme scenario feared, the entire Children’s Hospital system — all four hospitals and numerous outpatient clinics that treat hundreds of thousands of kids a year — could have to close.