Despite the Democratic Party's efforts to codify a "Trans Bill of Rights," public sentiment on the issue is turning. Two prominent medical associations, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have both come out against "gender-affirming surgeries" for minors. The list of hospitals that are also no longer performing those procedures is growing, too. This was driven by money, of course. The Trump administration vowed to withhold federal funding from hospitals that perform what the administration correctly calls "gender-denying" procedures, and Fox Varian, a detransitioner, just won a $2 million lawsuit against the doctors and shrink who facilitated her mastectomy at the age of 16.
Now the New York Times is chiding these organizations as not following the science, but belief, in the push for "gender-affirming care" for minors.
I have a piece in The New York times about what it means to "trust the science" when it comes to the professional guidelines on youth gender medicinehttps://t.co/8W1OCxBX5w
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) February 24, 2026
Here's more:
American advocates for youth gender medicine have insisted for years that overwhelming evidence favors providing gender dysphoric youth with puberty blockers, hormones and, in the case of biological females, surgery to remove their breasts.
It didn’t matter that the number of kids showing up at gender clinics had soared and that they were more likely to have complex mental health conditions than those who had come to clinics in years earlier, complicating diagnosis. Advocates and health care organizations just dug in. As a billboard truck used by the L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group GLAAD proclaimed in 2023, “The science is settled.” The Human Rights Campaign says on its website that “the safety and efficacy of gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth and adults is clear.” Elsewhere, these and other groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, referred to these treatments as “medically necessary,” “lifesaving” and “evidence-based.”
The reason these advocates were able to make such strong statements is that for years, the most important professional medical and mental health organizations in the country had been singing a similar tune: “The science” was supposedly codified in documents published by these organizations. As GLAAD puts it on its website, “Every major medical association supports health care for transgender people and youth as safe and lifesaving.”
But something confounding has happened in the last few weeks: Cracks have appeared in the supposed wall of consensus.
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There was never a wall of scientific consensus, of course. It was all driven by political ideology, and the fact that organizations are backpedaling now that millions of dollars in lawsuits and federal funding are on the line proves it was never about the science.
This is an important piece from @jessesingal on how medical organizations who were supposed to be the authorities spent years prioritizing politics over science on gender dysphoria treatments for minors.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 24, 2026
It did incredible harm to kids, trust in science, & those organizations. pic.twitter.com/bj7O4mH7th
Between COVID and transgender "medicine," the damage done to kids and the trust in science, medical organizations, and experts is irreparable.
Now that these groups are backing away from the invented consensus they spent years pushing, it’s worth examining how we went down this path and so much harm was done without any concern for the truth. https://t.co/hEI8v0XBAX pic.twitter.com/ZVaVdwOWn0
— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 24, 2026
Singal admits that many of these organizations were simply relying on recommendations from other organizations rather than scientific research. Those recommendations were driven by political and social ideology. Meanwhile, actual scientific reviews, like the 2024 Cass Review, found “remarkably weak” evidence to support the practice of youth gender medicine and noted the "shoddy" professional guidelines.
If you think about it, it's not really that surprising even though it was tragic.
— Jack Bauer after dark 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@JackBauerAD) February 24, 2026
The people who were/are advocating for this abandonment of actual science are often the folks who did the exact same thing during Covid.
And before that, they did the same thing with global warming — sorry, climate change. There's a pattern here that cannot be denied. Medical organizations, scientific bodies, and other "expert" groups have been captured by a political ideology that puts science behind the agenda.
It's great that the tide is turning, but it should not have taken this long or resulted in irreparable harm to so many children.
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