Rush University System for Health, the Chicago White Sox's official healthcare partner, is under fire for its DEI agenda, past gender-transition treatments for minors, drag-event sponsorships, executive compensation, and employee layoffs.
Rush became the White Sox's first official healthcare partner under a multiyear agreement announced in 2022. Rush and Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush received some of the most visible advertising space inside Guaranteed Rate Field, including signs on the outfield wall, dugout railings, ribbon boards and behind home plate.
Rush President and CEO Dr. Omar Lateef called it a community partnership. Here's how he described Rush's priorities in the same breath:
"Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is a critical part of our DNA. To achieve this, we continually work to develop a diverse workforce, an equitable and accessible workplace and an inclusive environment where all employees feel they belong."
That prominent ballpark presence puts Rush's name in front of a captive audience, one that's also footing part of the bill. Rush receives federal funding and operates as a tax-exempt institution, yet spends heavily on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, advertising and executive compensation. The hospital is hardly quiet about those priorities. Its website says the health system seeks to advance racial equity by “dismantling barriers, righting injustices” and remaining “actively anti-racist” across its healthcare, research and educational operations.
A Rush DEI committee organized a "PRIDE Charity Drag Brunch" with proceeds going to Affirm, the hospital's center for gender, sexuality and reproductive health.
Rush required managers to complete implicit-bias training as part of its standard leadership development program. Employees at Rush University Children's Hospital were sent to DEI retreats covering microaggressions and systemic racism.
In a statement to the wider press, Will Hild, executive director of Consumers' Research, put it plainly
"Rush is betraying what should be every hospital's core mission by using its time, energy, and taxpayer support to promote radical woke activism."
Rush currently advertises a “full spectrum” of gender-transition procedures for adults. The hospital system lists facial procedures, mastectomies, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty among the services it offers.
Rush's record with minors tells a more complicated story. Rush stopped offering hormonal treatments to new patients under 18 in July 2025 and said it had not performed gender-transition surgeries on minors since 2023. The hospital continued offering mental health, behavioral health, and social services to patients of all ages. Its services for adults were not affected.
The money involved is substantial, and much of it is yours. Rush University Medical Center reported $194,629,478 in federal award expenditures during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. More than $103 million went toward research and development, while approximately $80.6 million involved federal student assistance. That federal funding flows to the same institution now sponsoring drag brunches and DEI retreats on the taxpayer dime.
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Tax filings show Rush reported nearly $3.7 million in reportable compensation for Lateef during fiscal year 2024, plus another $476,520 in other compensation. His reportable compensation had been just under $3 million the previous year.
The figure increased again in the newest available filing, which lists $4,296,109 in compensation for Lateef during fiscal year 2025.
At the same time, Rush was cutting jobs. The hospital system eliminated an undisclosed number of administrative and leadership positions in early 2024, blaming “financial headwinds affecting healthcare providers nationwide.” Rush said the restructuring was intended to preserve resources for front-line patient care.
Rush paid to put its name throughout Guaranteed Rate Field. Now White Sox fans know what's behind it.
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