SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- The Capital Region's adult transgender community now has new services available to them, as Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson announces the addition of hormone therapy.
"These services are really critical for the folks who are seeking them," said Lyndon Cudlitz with the Pride Center of the Capital Region.
And they're often hard to come by, until now. Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson in Saratoga Springs announced that hormone therapy has been added to its already existing medical services for transgender patients.
"When our transgender patients asked us why aren't we providing the service we thought 'well, why aren't we providing this service?'It seemed like a natural thing for us to do," explained Eileen Lawson, director for Planned Parenthood Mowhawk Hudson Health Center.
"This is a huge relief," said Cudlitz.
Lyndon Cudlitz with the Pride Center of the Capital Region helped to get Planned Parenthood on board with hormone therapy. He said there has been a severe lack of transitional service providers in the area.
"Our best resources for mental health services, support groups, they're overflowing right now," he explained.
Making the newest local services already a big success.
Lawson said, "we've had everything from patients hugging us to calling us and saying 'we're so happy you're doing this we're on our way for our first appointment.' It's been very rewarding."
But not everyone feels the same. A spokesperson for New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, an evangelical Christian advocacy organization, sent Time Warner Cable News an email reading "Persons with Gender Dysphoria are entitled to be treated with respect and compassion; however, a compassionate approach to a person with Gender Dysphoria is to help the person to overcome it—not to take their money and give them artificial hormones.”
Advocates said it's not about overcoming, it's about empowering.
"I think that we can all agree that we want to see human beings having access to the things that keep them happy and the things that keep them safe and that really is what a lot of this is about," said Cudlitz.
"We're welcoming, we're inclusive, we want people to be their happiest and healthiest selves, I think it's groundbreaking," said Lawson.