Alexandra Solomon, Gender Justice & Health Equity Legal Fellow
On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced via press release the publication of a commissioned study, Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology? The Department touted findings that individuals who believe in so-called “radical gender ideology” are more likely to hold left-wing authoritarian beliefs and justify political violence. Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brian Christine emphasized that this “warrant[s] serious scientific scrutiny,” pledging that HHS would continue to “pursue rigorous research” and “give[] the American people the evidence they deserve.”
The report is but one of the Department’s recent animus-fueled attacks on trans communities and their allies.
Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) has submitted a request for correction to HHS, identifying the report’s serious deficiencies and recommending a full retraction. The report fails to meet the strict standards governing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of scientific information disseminated by federal agencies. Among its many fatal flaws, the “study” was not peer-reviewed, relies on biased surveys, does not make the underlying data available for independent verification, and relies on a newly developed measure without sufficient validation.
HHS commissioning and publicizing manufactured conclusions that stigmatize transgender people and the clinicians and institutions responsible for their care is a dangerous political strategy embraced by illiberal regimes: By maintaining transgender rights as a constant source of public controversy, fear and outrage, political leaders redirect attention away from executive overreach and threats to democratic institutions. The Trump administration and its allies on the far-right have a demonstrated pattern of disseminating anti-trans pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and harmful tropes, casting trans people as a dangerous ‘other.’ Exploiting gaps in public understanding of transgender people and fostering moral panic has normalized and even created public demand for government intervention.
The link the report draws between gender-affirming care and political violence is not only patently false but also obscures the reality—as evidenced by peer-reviewed studies, qualitative research, verifiable documentation, government-collected data, and DOJ prosecutions of hate crimes—that transgender people and the healthcare professionals who serve them have themselves been documented victims of threats, intimidation, and violence. Instead of advancing its public mission to “enhance the health and well-being of all Americans,” HHS is employing a recognized tactic of authoritarian governance that portrays marginalized communities as dangerous enemies to justify discrimination, undermine civil rights frameworks, and legitimize violence against vulnerable groups.
Populist leaders canonically designate LGBTQ+ people as threats not only to traditional values but to the nation itself, while casting themselves as guardians legitimately escalating force. The HHS report’s authors execute this strategy flawlessly by emphasizing that the findings may implicate national security and public safety. They assert that existing threat-detection frameworks are not designed to recognize “radicalization pathways” supposedly operating through gender-affirming care clinical guidelines, professional standards, and credentialed expertise. This echoes the Trump administration’s national security agenda, which identifies gender-related extremism as motivating domestic terrorism and vows to protect Americans from “violent left-wing extremists” with “anti-American” and “radically pro-transgender” ideologies. A related DOJ directive contemplated prosecuting those who aid and abet, raising the specter that providers of gender-affirming care could be portrayed as complicit.
Under Trump’s authority and explicit direction, federal agencies have pursued mutually reinforcing regulatory and legal attacks on institutions and individuals engaged in research, development of clinical standards, and delivery of transgender healthcare. These coordinated efforts include investigations by the Department of Justice resulting in coercive settlements, litigation brought by the Federal Trade Commission, and FBI solicitation of public reports against providers of youth gender-affirming care.
The consequences of allowing this dangerous report to fester and grow in the hands of the Trump administration are clear: Government-generated pseudoscientific claims provide evergreen grounds for repressive pursuits.
In May 2025, HHS published a specious commissioned review of evidence on gender dysphoria in children that has since been weaponized as pretext for increased scrutiny and regulation of transgender adults and minors. The Federal Trade Commission—applauded by HHS—invoked the sham review in its lawsuit against The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), just weeks after a federal judge blocked its investigative demands as likely unconstitutional retaliation. A Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulation that took effect on October 13, 2026, cut off federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for certain forms of gender-affirming care for minors, in express reliance upon the review. In a gross display of overreach, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), HHS, and 40 other agencies cited it in a proposed overhaul of federal assistance that designates “gender ideology” as harmful to women, children, scientific inquiry, and public safety, and would establish the use of federal funds to promote it as grounds for recovering or terminating awards.
Notably, in April 2026, a federal court vacated and permanently enjoined enforcement of a declaration issued by HHS Secretary Kennedy that cited the 2025 “evidence review” while attempting to use HHS’s authority to unilaterally override professionally recognized standards of gender-affirming care. Yet this latest report offers a means of advancing the same agenda without issuing a binding directive subject to the same judicial scrutiny.
On August 13, 2026, HHS published a second commissioned report targeting gender-affirming healthcare: Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine. Relying on unverified billing anomalies and selective accounts, the report accused providers of exploiting transgender minors for profit and engaging in potentially fraudulent insurance billing. The day before the public release, Secretary Kennedy referred hundreds of hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare entities identified in the report to the HHS Office of Inspector General for investigation. Vice President JD Vance subsequently referred them to the Department of Justice. HHS further amplified the allegations through a companion documentary and publicity campaign, while the White House later celebrated the report and resulting referrals as administration accomplishments.
Defending democracy requires scrutinizing not only how the government exercises its authority, but also the purported research or evidence it invokes to justify doing so. L4GG is calling on HHS to retract the report in full and withdraw or correct the official communications promoting its findings. Anything less will perpetuate the intentional and continued spread of misinformation and pseudoscience.
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Members of the public can submit requests for correction under HHS's Information Quality Guidelines. Requests should identify specific inaccuracies, provide supporting evidence, explain how the requester is affected, and specify the corrections sought. Requests concerning HHS Office of the Secretary publications may be sent to ASPE.InfoQuality@hhs.gov.