San Diego, CA
San Diego hospital pulls plug on child trans treatments — families cry ‘discrimination’
A major California children’s hospital is facing a legal firestorm after pulling the plug on transgender care for minors, leaving families scrambling and triggering dueling lawsuits.
Four families are suing San Diego-based Rady Children’s Health, accusing the hospital of abruptly cutting off gender-affirming treatments and throwing nearly 2,000 young patients into limbo.
The fallout was immediate: canceled appointments, disrupted care and panicked parents racing to find new doctors.
And the families aren’t alone in taking legal action.
They join California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who already filed his own lawsuit, alleging the hospital’s move isn’t just harmful, it’s illegal.
At the center of the fight is a binding merger agreement requiring Rady to keep offering gender-affirming care through 2034, a promise the state says the hospital broke when it shut down services for patients under 19.
Hospital officials insist their hands were tied, pointing to mounting federal pressure, funding threats and even a federal investigation into transgender care programs.
But critics aren’t buying it.
They argue California law clearly bans discrimination based on gender identity, and treats gender-affirming care as medically necessary, meaning the hospital can’t just walk away.
The controversy is part of a wider national battle, as federal officials ramp up scrutiny of transgender care for minors, putting hospitals across the country in the crosshairs.
For now, a judge has stepped in to temporarily block a full shutdown of services, but the broader fight is just getting started.
And with kids’ healthcare caught in the middle, the outcome could ripple far beyond one hospital.
The magic of movies may still be present, but the way audiences experienced them in early San Diego was very different.
In the opening decades of motion pictures, films didn’t originate locally — they arrived.
Before Hollywood’s studio system fully consolidated, movies were distributed as physical reels and moved through regional film exchange networks.
These exchanges supplied theaters across the West Coast, including San Diego, with a steady rotation of new titles. Prints would arrive from distribution hubs in Los Angeles, play brief local runs, and then continue onward to the next city. San Diego was part of the circuit, rather than a production center.
By the early 1900s and into the 1910s, downtown theaters and vaudeville houses quickly adapted to motion pictures as they grew in popularity.
Programs were mixed: silent shorts, live music, vaudeville acts, and newsreels sharing the same stage. Film was not yet a standalone cultural industry — it was part of a broader night of entertainment.
San Diego’s growing downtown and busy port helped sustain this system. Sailors, travelers, and military personnel created a steady audience base, and films rotated frequently enough to keep programs changing week to week.
Films also did not arrive everywhere at once. A title might open in Los Angeles first, then reach San Diego days or weeks later as part of the same distribution circuit. Early cinema was a staggered experience—shared nationally, but consumed locally at different moments in time.
Film historians, including those from the Library of Congress and the American Film Institute, note that these exchange systems were essential to standardizing early American film culture, allowing motion pictures to reach cities far beyond production centers.
(Photo and caption info courtesy of the San Diego History Center)
Within this broader California film landscape, early directors often worked quickly and flexibly. William Bertram, for example, operated in a fast-moving production environment shaped by outdoor locations and rapid shooting schedules rather than permanent studio infrastructure.
Directors with direction
Allan Dwann, whose career stretched from the silent era into the sound age, represents a later stage of that evolution. A prolific filmmaker, he eventually settled in La Jolla, where he lived for many years until he died in 1981. His presence in coastal San Diego reflects the period when the film industry had become firmly rooted in Southern California life.
San Diego’s role in early cinema was not as a production hub, but as a receiving point — its downtown theaters and vaudeville houses acting as stops along a larger national distribution route.
In that sense, early film culture here was defined less by creation than by circulation: reels arriving, audiences gathering, and the city sitting along the path movies traveled as they moved across the country.
Read more history stories here, and do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net.
Sources:
Library of Congress — motion picture history and early film distribution/exchange systems.
American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog — silent-era exhibition and industry context.
San Diego History Center — early 20th-century urban development and cultural life.
Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema, 1907–1915 (MoMA film scholarship)
Other historical references.
San Diego, CA
Where to watch Athletics vs San Diego Padres: TV channel, start time, streaming for May 24
What to know about MLB’s ABS robot umpire strike zone system
MLB launches ABS challenge system as players test robot umpire calls in a groundbreaking season.
The 2026 MLB season has surpassed the quarter mark, and after each team’s first 40 games, there’s plenty of reasons to tune in all summer long.
Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami has already proven doubters wrong by launching 17 home runs, Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes consistently looks like the best version of himself on the mound and Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski is throwing harder than any starter in the majors.
The MLB action continues on Sunday as the Athletics visit the San Diego Padres.
Here’s everything you need to know to tune in for the first pitch.
See USA TODAY’s sortable MLB schedule to filter by team or division.
What time is Athletics vs San Diego Padres?
First pitch between the San Diego Padres and Athletics is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, May 24.
How to watch Athletics vs San Diego Padres on Sunday
All times Eastern and accurate as of Sunday, May 24, 2026, at 6:32 a.m.
Watch MLB all season long with Fubo
MLB regional blackout restrictions apply
MLB scores, results
MLB scores for May 24 games are available on usatoday.com . Here’s how to access today’s results:
See scores, results for all of today’s games.
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