Kennedy Jr. as his pick for Health and Human Services secretary last year, President Trump and Kennedy have touted their dedication to "Gold Standard Scientific Research" and making federal health agencies "beacons of Transparency." But a recent report released by the agency has left some experts with substantial doubts about its researchers' methods, its claims about its findings and its authors' political intentions. The report, titled "Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?" was not peer reviewed and its underlying data and funding have also not been made available. All are common best practices for research. (One author says its data will be released "soon.") The report is the latest in a string of efforts by HHS to undermine established clinical standards of care for transgender patients.
Many experts interviewed for this story said it frames transgender identity as illegitimate or even dangerous. In recent years, right-wing figures and media outlets have advanced the narrative that transgender people and those who support them are violent or dangerous to society. The phrase "gender ideology extremism" has appeared in White House directives.
These arguments have proliferated despite a substantial body of evidence showing transgender people are far more likely to be targets of violence, rather than perpetrators. One of the authors of the latest HHS report is Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist with the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing policy think tank that's been at the forefront of campaigns against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and "wokeness." While it's not uncommon for HHS to work with outside experts on reports, said Adrian Shanker, a former deputy assistant secretary for health policy at the department in the Biden administration, in his experience, "The department had longstanding contracts with generalist science writing firms. They were not political in any way." "That's vastly different from how this administration seems to already have the answers for the reports they're publishing before they start.
And they're partnering with politically-aligned researchers and think tanks to develop reports that meet a political conclusion rather than a scientific one," said Shanker. HHS did not respond to NPR's interview request for this story. In emails with NPR, report co-author Wright provided lengthy responses to NPR's questions, but insisted his answers could not be used unless they were reprinted in their totality.
Wright subsequently posted NPR's questions and his answers on his X account. Other authors of the report did not accept NPR's interview requests. Wright said the paper will eventually be submitted to a scientific journal, adding, "the fact that our report has not yet undergone peer review at a journal does not make it pseudoscience." The term "gender ideology" is a rhetorical device often used by the religious right to suggest that acceptance of any alternatives to a fixed idea of traditional gender norms, corresponding with someone's sex at birth, is part of a larger plot to corrupt society.
The existence and acceptance of transgender people is often also seen as an indicator of a sinister agenda. In the HHS report, the term is used interchangeably with "gender-affirming care," which is the accepted medical and mental health standard of care for treating transgender patients. "Generally speaking, I do not believe the term 'gender ideology' is a political term, even though many on the left reject it.
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