Oregon Cancer Patient Says She Was Denied Treatment After Objecting to Pride Flag

Clinic sees patient's views as 'disrespectful and hurtful' to 'LGBT community and staff'

The Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Oregon, part of Oregon Health and Science University, recently announced expansion of a "gender-affirming" surgical center. Courtesy of Oregon Health and Science University

An Oregon cancer patient says she’s no longer able to receive treatment at her doctor’s office—or throughout the associated network of clinics—after she complained the transgender pride flag in the lobby made her uncomfortable.

In a letter to Marlene Barbera, a clinic representative didn’t mention her objection to the flag, writing that the decision to dismiss her as a patient was due to “ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff.”

Ms. Barbera had been a patient at the clinic for 12 years, she told The Epoch Times. She said that while she’s outspoken about her opposition to transgenderism online, she hasn’t confronted any transgender workers at the clinic and expressed her views in a private message to her doctor.

“It is daunting to go for medical treatment with that banner proclaiming” that being a woman has been reduced to “a mere opt-in category for any gender-nonconforming male and not a reality itself,” she wrote in a message about a transgender pride flag in the lobby of the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic (RFMC). The clinic is part of the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

Having a primary care physician is especially important to her because of her medical history, Ms. Barbera told The Epoch Times.

She’s had a liver transplant, which requires lifelong care. She struggles with anxiety and depression. And at 55, she’s currently battling breast cancer and was scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy.

But now, she’s been told she'll need to find a new physician—one that’s not affiliated with OHSU.

“This letter is to inform you that, effective immediately, you are discharged from receiving medical care at the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic,” a letter to her from the clinic states.

A person holds a transgender flag at Washington Square Park in New York on Oct. 21, 2018. Yana Paskova/Getty Images

“This action is being taken because of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff.”

The letter goes on to say, “Please note that you are also now dismissed from all OHSU Family Medicine clinics, including Immediate Care clinics. If you need assistance in finding a new provider, please contact your health plan. Your health care records will be forwarded free of charge to your new provider once you notify us where to send them.”

‘I Do Not Feel Comfortable’

The conflict began, Ms. Barbera said, after she sent a written message to her doctor. In it, she explained that because of her outspoken views on transgenderism, she’s faced death threats and rape threats from transgender activists online.

“I do not feel comfortable, as a gender-critical woman, who believes gender to be a nonsense, and sexed bodies to be a reality,” Ms. Barbera wrote in the message, which was shown to The Epoch Times. “I do not feel comfortable coming into Richmond [clinic] with that enormous transgenderism banner hanging like a Nazi flag behind the reception desk.

“Where is the flag for women? For children?”

Marlene Barbera was denied care at Oregon Health and Science University after objecting to a clinic's transgender flag. Courtesy of Marlene Barbera

Though she opposes radical gender ideology, Ms. Barbera describes herself politically as “a lefty-left, Bernie Bro, liberal Democrat, registered since 1988.”

“And after [the election of President Donald] Trump, I guess everybody couldn’t handle anything anymore. And the Left is as crazy as the Right. They’re worse. The Right at least talks sense and deals in reality,” she told The Epoch Times.

Still, she doesn’t agree with the political Left’s embrace of transgenderism.

“It is daunting to go for medical treatment with that banner proclaiming that what I am—an adult human female (calling myself that now is hateful per OHSU) ... is not a reality,” she wrote.

Ms. Barbera asked the doctor for a telephone appointment to discuss how she could access medical care without “walking under a banner that seeks to negate all I am.”

After that, when she called the clinic to make an appointment, staffers refused to let her leave a message for the doctor, she said. Then, they hung up on her, she said.

When she called back and asked to speak with another staffer, she said the representative declined. Two months later, Ms. Barbera received the letter dismissing her as a patient.

Ms. Barbera’s request for a mastectomy to fight cancer has been declined. Her oncologist and surgeon now see her at other facilities.

Social Media Stir-Up

Without a primary care physician managing her overall health care, Ms. Barbera said she feels “very scared” and has sought legal advice.

“I am a liver transplant recipient with breast cancer, facing double mastectomy at the end of August, and now I have no primary care doctor,” she wrote on X, previously known as Twitter.

A woman gets a mammogram at the University of Michigan Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., on May 22, 2015. Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press/via AP

Her post has been viewed more than 4 million times. The reaction has been mixed.

Some X users expressed sympathy or outrage that a longtime patient facing cancer would be denied care. Others suggested she‘d been wrong to object to the transgender flag. Some wrote that they hoped she’d die from her illness.

OHSU stands by its decision to deny her care.

Patients have a right to care delivered “free from abuse, discrimination or harassment based on age, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, culture, language, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, physical or mental disability, religion, socioeconomic status, marital status, military or reserve status, or any other status protected by law,” Sara Hottman, the associate director of media relations for OHSU, told The Epoch Times in a written statement.

Ms. Hottman said patients, families, and visitors are responsible for avoiding discriminatory, profane, derogatory, or threatening behavior.

“These behaviors can result in limitation of visiting privileges and impact access to care at OHSU,” she said.

Ms. Barbera insists, “I made no statements about anything other than a menacing political flag,” which she describes as “hostile to women and dangerous for children.”

A Progress Pride flag is held above the crowd of LGBT activists during a rally in West Hollywood, Calif., on April 9, 2023. Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images

OHSU’s website emphasizes a commitment to helping patients.

“We are recognized by the state of Oregon for care that puts patients at the heart of everything we do,” the site reads.

“Patients should be able to see providers who understand and can meet their diverse needs—providers who appreciate and respect differences, whether ethnic background, race, language, religion, abilities, sexual orientation or culture.”

Medical Ethics

The treatment Ms. Barbera has endured is “outrageous,” according to Charles Rosen, M.D., president and co-founder of the Association for Medical Ethics.

Dr. Rosen also is a professor at the University of California, and his views don’t represent the views of his school, he said.

“You can’t abandon a patient based on political views,” he told The Epoch Times. “I’ve never heard that that’s anything legal at all.”

Hospitals can abandon medically stable patients only if they are violent and abusive, Dr. Rosen said.

Charles Rosen, M.D., president and co-founder of the Association for Medical Ethics. Courtesy of the Association for Medical Ethics

“There are state laws about it, at least in California,” he said. “You can’t just abandon patients. No, you have to go through a process.”

It is not uncommon for doctors to work to save the lives of people accused or convicted of heinous crimes.

In 2013, doctors tried to save the life of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, accused of participating in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. He was wounded in a gunfight with police and died a few days later. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted in the plot that killed three people and injured hundreds.

The American Medical Association’s code of ethics forbids doctors from making medical decisions based on political differences with the patient.

“Physicians must not allow differences with the patient or family about political matters to interfere with the delivery of professional care,” the guidelines read.

The guidelines also advise physicians to “be sensitive” to the “imbalance of power in the patient-physician relationship” and refrain from “initiating political conversations during the clinical encounter.”

The treatment Ms. Barbera experienced is typical of how radical gender ideologues operate, said Michael O'Fallon, director of the conservative activist group Sovereign Alliance.

“Anything that gets in the way of the Leftist revolution—it must be pushed away,” he told The Epoch Times. “It must be cast aside.”

Interactions like that of patients being rejected by medical providers because of their beliefs on topics now considered political are becoming more common, Mr. O'Fallon said. OHSU isn’t alone; many Oregon schools currently enthrone this ideology and are willing to defend it vigorously, he said.

“It’s militaristic there, at this point.”