On May 1 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in response to a presidential executive order, released a new report on the treatment of transgender youth. The report challenged existing evidence-based standards of care.

Read the full release at https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/gender-dysphoria-report-release.html.

Equality Illinois responds:

We all want Trans youth to be safe.  In particular, parents and doctors who care for Trans young people have the strongest desire to ensure the Trans young people in their life are healthy and free from harm. That is why we are alarmed by today’s HHS report on gender affirming care. 
 While we review the report in its entirety, it is clear that the report contradicts what science, doctors, and Trans people know: medical care is essential for transgender youth.  By eschewing the science on medical care in favor of the harmful and debunked “conversion therapy,” the HHS report runs the risk of encouraging countless deaths among transgender youth.
 Transgender people have been a part of human culture – and American society – for centuries.  Like being gay, being transgender is not a choice—it’s rooted in biology. 
Every major medical association – from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to the American Medical Association (AMA) – has expressed support for gender-affirming care.  “Gender-affirming care is medically-necessary, evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people,” AMA Board Member Michael Suk reminds the public.  Nothing in the HHS report changes the underlying science and evidence that experts like the AAP and AMA have relied on.
 Furthermore, this report continues a long line of actions by this administration to contradict science and medical professionals, to advance debunked theories, and to intercede in decisions made by patients, parents, and medical professionals.  The HHS Secretary has publicly rejected the science on vaccines and the NIH Director was a lead skeptic in COVID’s deadliness. Countless leaders in this administration have sought to bar a pregnant person’s right to determine their own reproductive care.  Sadly, this report merely advances a political agenda – advanced with over $200 million in campaign spending – to discredit Trans people and attack their rights.
 We understand that many well-meaning people have questions about medical care for transgender youth. Issues concerning appropriate care for Trans youth are admittedly complex.  Every parent wants their child to be happy and safe.  Every doctor wants their patient to be healthy.  That is why these complex decisions should be left to patients, their parents, and their doctors – not government actors advancing a political agenda.

GLAAD responds:

(New York, NY – May 1, 2025) – GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is issuing the following statement in response to a new report today from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on transgender health care. The report comes at the request of the Trump administration through an executive order in January seeking to ban lifesaving medical care for transgender people.

GLAAD’s President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis (she/her) released the following statement:“A report in the suggestion that someone’s authentic self and who they are can be ‘changed’ is discredited junk science. This so-called guidance is grossly misleading and in direct contrast to the recommendation of every leading health authority in the world. This report amounts to nothing more than forcing the same discredited idea of conversion therapy that ripped families apart and harmed gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people for decades.”

The government has not released the names of those involved in consulting or authoring this report.

For decades, every major medical association, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, has recognized safe, effective, best-practices care for gender dysphoria. Decades of substantial peer-reviewed research shows that this care is safe, effective and essential to the health and well-being of transgender people and youth. 

Evidence around the safety and effectiveness of health care for transgender people of all ages is as strong as the evidence for treatments across other areas of medicine. Health care for transgender people relies on the same trusted medications used to treat cisgender youth for a range of health care issues, like early-onset puberty. Efforts to ban these treatments are only for transgender youth, not cisgender youth, who can still access them without concern about their safety, efficacy, or long-term effects.

Every major U.S. medical and mental health association has also spoken out against conversion practices or so-called “conversion therapy,” which has long been used to shame LGBTQ young people into hating themselves for being unable to change.

LPAC responds:

May 1, 2025 — Today, LPAC, the nation’s only organization dedicated to advancing the political representation of LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary candidates, responded to news that the Department of Health and Human Services published a report attacking the evidence-based Standards of Care for transgender youth, and endorsing dangerous, discredited conversion therapy practices—which they are now calling “exploratory therapy.” This report is not based on science, and instead is an agenda-driven political attack on transgender young people and their families.

“For decades, every major medical association–including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics–have affirmed that medical care is the only safe and effective treatment for transgender youth experiencing gender dysphoria,” said Janelle Perez, Executive Director of LPAC. “This report is simply promoting conversion therapy by a different name – and the American people know better. We know that conversion therapy isn’t actually therapy – It isolates and harms kids, scapegoats parents, and divides families through blame and rejection. These tactics have been used against gay kids for decades, and now the same people want to use them against transgender youth and their families.

The end result here will be a devastating denial of essential health care for transgender youth, replaced by a dangerous practice that every major U.S. medical and mental health association agree promotes anxiety, depression, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts.

Like being gay or lesbian, being transgender is not a choice, and no amount of pressure can force someone to change who they are. We also know that 98% of people who receive transition-related health care continue to receive that health care throughout their lifetime. Trans health care is health care.”