The Trump administration continued its record of anti-queer attacks with the release of a controversial new 409-page report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that promotes conversion therapy and discredits gender-affirming care, The Advocate reported.
Among other things, the report (commissioned under President Donald Trump’s January Executive Order 14187) falsely claims medical transition is harmful and unproven, and promotes “exploratory therapy”—a version of conversion practices widely criticized by major medical associations. The Advocate also stated that the HHS report claims that gender-affirming care lacks evidence of benefit, but it also dismisses peer-reviewed research and reframes therapeutic approaches as medical risks. Notably, the report endorses what it calls “gender exploratory therapy,” which experts contend is another term for conversion therapy.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya—who has no background in gender-affirming care and who backed the concept of herd immunity during the COVID lockdown—introduced the report.
LGBTQ+ leaders criticized the document. The “report seeks to erase decades of research and learning, replacing it with propaganda,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter. “It promotes the same kind of conversion therapy long used to shame LGBTQ+ people.” Meanwhile, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called the document “discredited junk science.”