Anti-LGBTQ+ laws drive gay doc to NHP

BY BRANDON DUFFY

Dr. Jake Kleinmahon, a New Orleans-based physician who specializes in pediatric heart conditions, said he came back to Louisiana five years ago to help build a specialty program second to none.

“We really planted our roots in New Orleans because they needed someone to build a heart transplant program,” Kleinmahon, the medical director at Oschner Hospital for Children’s pediatric heart transplant, heart failure and ventricular assist device programs, told Blank Slate Media.

But a growing sentiment in the state sparked by three bills targeting LGBTQ+ people has led Kleinmahon, his husband and two children to pack their bags for Long Island.

Kleinmahon, a Westchester native, said he accepted an offer from Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park to join the hospital in a similar role and plans to move by the end of the month.

“When we moved back down, we knew we were moving to a state that historically has been fairly socially conservative,” Kleinmahon said about returning to the South after working in Colorado. “But New Orleans is an area that accepts all people of all walks of life.”

Earlier this year, Louisiana lawmakers approved anti-LGBTQ bills that included a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, outlining pronoun usage for students and their version of a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which restricts discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

Louisiana has a Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, who has served since 2016 and is term-limited to the end of this year. Edwards vetoed each of the bills that passed through the state Legislature, but lawmakers overturned the bill banning gender-affirming care for minors.

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