DENVER — A Denver district judge opened a multiday hearing Thursday to determine whether Children’s Hospital Colorado should be held in contempt of court because transgender minors still can’t receive gender-affirming care there.

Judge Ericka Englert closed the courtroom following opening statements, preventing the public from hearing testimony by doctors who previously offered gender-affirming care. They had asked the court to allow them to testify anonymously, citing fears of threats.

Children’s halted puberty blockers and hormonal therapy for transgender youth in December, citing threats from the Trump administration to prevent any hospital offering that care from billing Medicaid for any services. The hospital, located in Aurora, does not perform gender-affirming surgeries on people under 18.

The families of four transgender girls sued Children’s shortly afterward, arguing the hospital’s ban amounted to discrimination based on gender identity, because it provided the same services to cisgender youth for other diagnoses.

The case reached the Colorado Supreme Court, which ordered Children’s in May to reinstate care. The hospital argued that it complied by lifting its ban, but its providers independently decided not to take the legal risk of offering that care. The plaintiffs countered that the court order wasn’t intended to just change a policy, but to make care accessible.

John McHugh, attorney for the suing families, said in court Thursday that if Children’s can get around state antidiscrimination laws by deferring decisions to its medical providers, it could also claim to be doing nothing wrong if a doctor was only willing to treat white patients.

He asked the court to fine Children’s $50,000 per day until the hospital resumes gender-affirming care.

“The duty to comply always lies with the hospital,” he said.

Elliot Peters, who represented Children’s, said the court order required the hospital to lift its prohibition on providing gender-affirming care, which it has done.

The hospital can’t force its doctors — who technically work for the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine — to offer certain types of care, particularly when they have well-founded fears of federal persecution, he said.

“Children’s Colorado has no say over care by providers it does not even employ,” he said.

The courtroom reopened to the public for the last hour of testimony, when two mothers of transgender children spoke about how their care halted. McHugh focused on their interactions with the hospital, which assigned them a provider after they initiated care for gender dysphoria, while Children’s legal team pointed to providers’ testimony that they made their own decisions.

One mother, testifying under the name Denise Doe, said her daughter’s provider seemed distressed to have to stop care, crying on a call with her. The provider testified Thursday that they decided on their own, but Doe said she remembered their conversation slightly differently.

“They said the decision was made in partnership, I guess, with their peers,” she said.

Stopping gender-affirming care has been a federal priority since President Donald Trump began his second term.

In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a subpoena for patients’ records and doctors’ personnel files at Children’s, though that has remained on hold since a federal magistrate judge recommended throwing it out.

In December, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that facilities and doctors who provide gender-affirming care could lose the right to bill Medicare and Medicaid — a massive financial blow.

So far, that provision hasn’t taken effect, but three hospitals have settled with the federal government over their transgender care programs, paying fines and, in at least one case, cutting ties with doctors who offered those services.

The hearing will continue Friday.

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