An undercover video obtained by Townhall Media indicates how left-wing gender theory has become standard practice in New Mexico schools and is perpetuated by federal tax dollars.
The video was shot before the federal Department of Health and Human Services proposed “to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children that expose young people to irreversible harm,” which include “pharmaceutical or surgical interventions of specified types that attempt to align a child’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity different from their sex,” according to the department.
The video, taken at Health Leadership High School on Nov. 13, 2025, shows a man sitting at the reception desk of Owens Administrative and Healthcare Support Services, a school-based privately owned health center in Albuquerque.
Health Leadership High School says its mission is “to equip students with the skills they need to become leaders in healthcare.”
“Within the three schools, this is the most welcoming, especially individuals of an alternative lifestyle,” Shannon told the undercover journalist in the video.
He indicated “federal mandates” were restricting what the clinic was able to do.“...We can’t call it ‘gender-affirming therapy.’ We call it ‘identity therapy.’ Basically, it hasn’t changed. It’s just the way we have to name it in order for billing to take place,” Shannon said in the video, adding the funds come from the state of New Mexico, and Medicaid is billed.
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“We really do work to provide as much treatment for the LGBTQ youth as we can,” Shannon said, according to the video.
He added the clinic was about to “partner” with Planned Parenthood to provide HIV testing for the school-based facility.
“So we’ll refer to them for any HIV testing that we need because it’s all paid for through Planned Parenthood and then we don’t have to pay for it ourselves,” he said.
Shannon acknowledged the school clinic is “not allowed” to do hormone alterations, but an Albuquerque transgender activism group “has a list of providers” that can do it.
The “Do No Harm in Medicaid Act” has passed the U.S. House in December and currently sits in the Senate. The bill “prohibits federal Medicaid payment for specified gender transition procedures for individuals under the age of 18,” according to a description provided by the Congress. It was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, where it has seen no action.
For now, New Mexico clinics will continue to operate, if even discreetly.
Another video showed a visit to University of New Mexico Truman Health Services and a worker there explaining there aren’t state laws against such procedures and surgeries for trans youth, “the issue, I think, is UNM does not want to draw attention from the federal government, especially by treating people who are out of state and risking their federal funding.”
“There’s a bit of pushback against having a formalized system in place, but we do have the systems in place to see these kids,” the worker said.
Asked where New Mexicans go when there aren’t in-state options, the worker responded, “There are a lot of options. … There are people in New York, people in San Francisco,” the worker said. “University of Colorado Health will do that kind of surgery.”
According to its website, UCHealth has an “Integrated Transgender Program” that includes “gender-affirming hormone therapy” and “surgical and dermatologic care.”
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