The Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a report on transgender healthcare, which has been widely criticized for its lack of scientific rigor and reliance on pseudoscience.
The report, commissioned under Trump’s executive order, promotes conversion therapy for transgender youth and redefines social transition as medical treatment. It also suggests that transgender healthcare should be judged based on employment status and romantic relationships rather than patient well-being.
Medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have condemned the report as misleading and inaccurate. It ignores established research showing the benefits of gender-affirming care and instead pushes an ideological agenda. The report also falsely claims that European countries are pulling back on transgender healthcare, despite recent medical guidelines in France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland supporting gender-affirming care.
Here we have collected some articles analyzing the report and its consequences.
Trump’s HHS urges therapy for transgender youth, departing from broader gender-affirming health care (PBS)
Gender transition care for #trans children and teens lacks evidence of benefits and poses risks, according to a new report released by Trump. Medical experts describes it as poor quality research that threatens access to care. (Washington Post)
Archive
Fact Check: Trump’s HHS Review On Trans Care Filled With Pseudoscience, Pushes Conversion Therapy (Erin in the Morning)
RFK Jr.’s HHS releases controversial report on gender-affirming care. Here’s what it says. (USA Today)
Dr. Susan J. Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement that “this report misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care.”
RFK Jr.’s HHS report pushes therapy, not medical interventions, for trans youth (Washington Blade)
Inside the HHS Review on Trans Youth: Facts, Fears, Fallout (Transvitae)
New HHS Report Urges ‘Exploratory Therapy’ for Transgender Youth (Time)
“Though the report argues that this “exploratory therapy” is not the same as the long practice of “conversion therapy”—which is a practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity—advocates see little difference.”
Time
Administration condemns gender-affirming care for youth in report that finds “sparse” evidence of harm (19th)
What does the HHS gender-affirming care report mean for trans rights? (Transitics)
Trump HHS tiptoes around endorsing conversion therapy for transgender minors (Healthcare Dive)
Trump administration releases 400-page review of gender dysphoria treatment for youths but won’t say who wrote it (CNN)
“Gender dysphoria is a term that mental health professionals use to describe clinically significant distress someone feels because their sense of their gender does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. It is an official diagnosis in the DSM, a book published by the American Psychiatric Association that classifies mental disorders, but not everyone who identifies as transgender or gender-diverse has this diagnosis.
Gender-affirming care is a wide range of treatments offered by a multidisciplinary team that is tailored to the individual.
For years, major mainstream medical associations – including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Endocrine Society, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry – have affirmed the practice of gender-affirming care and agree that it’s clinically appropriate care that can provide lifesaving treatment for children and adults.”
CNN
Trump administration HHS gender dysphoria report (Wikipedia)
HHS Releases Comprehensive Review of Medical Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria (HHS)
Researchers slam HHS report on gender-affirming care for youth (Science)
What professional organizations say about gender affirming care and the report
Experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, Fenway Health, Yale, and many other organizations have condemned Trump’s report as pseudoscience.
The American Medical Association supports everyone’s access to quality evidence-based health care regardless of gender or sexual orientation
American Psychiatric Organization
Endocrine Society
American Psychological Association: APA adopts groundbreaking policy supporting transgender, gender diverse, nonbinary individuals
APA Statement on Access to Treatment for Transgender, Gender Diverse, and Nonbinary People
American Academy of Pediatrics
AAP Statement on HHS Report Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria
AACAP Statement Responding to Efforts to ban Evidence-Based Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health
(WPATH) and the US Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) are deeply concerned about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report
LGBTQ organizations respond
Lambda Legal Responds to Trump’s HHS Report: A Biased Effort to Eradicate Medical Care for Children and Youth
GLAAD
The Trans Journalists Association urges caution in covering the HHS report on gender care
Image: Getty
