Trump's Anti-Trans Report Authors Revealed: Hate Groups and Billionaire-Funded Anti-Trans Activists

The majority of the “expert” comments cited in the “peer review” seem to be just as ignorant as the authors about the reality of trans people’s care.

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Hate group talking heads, dark money beneficiaries, and career anti-trans activists have been revealed as authors behind a screed against trans health care, disguised as a Health & Human Services review.

Absent among the authors: Any actual transgender people, medical professionals with notable experience treating trans people, or any academics who have conducted principal research on patients with gender dysphoria.

This is unsurprising given the report was created for the explicit purpose of manufacturing the appearance of scientific rigor in support of transphobic legislation. It was commissioned via a January executive order calling life-saving gender-affirming care “chemical and surgical mutilation” and a “stain on our Nation’s history” that “must end.”

In other words, the 400+ page report was never meant to be a sincere academic endeavor. It is propaganda dressed up as science and, as per the order, its conclusion was pre-determined: “It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” the order reads. (There are not actually any federal laws banning gender-affirming care.)

The original report, released in May, immediately came under fire for its shoddy methodology and dubious sourcing. At first, it did not even disclose its authors.

Now, nine author names have been released as part of the report’s final iteration—and it reads like a who’s-who of conservative gender extremism. Most of the authors are paid to travel the country providing “expert” testimony against gender affirming care, regardless of whether or not they have any credentials in that demographic of medicine.

The finalized report was accompanied by a bizarre 240-page addendum detailing its bastardized version of a “peer review” process.

The majority of the “expert” comments cited in the “peer review”—save input from representatives of the American Psychiatric Association, who excoriated it—seem to be just as ignorant as the authors about the reality of trans people’s care.

Meanwhile, actual experts in peer-reviewed journals found “numerous violations of scientific norms” in the HHS report, calling it “a dangerous example of government incursion into the provision of evidence-based medical care.”

Another peer reviewed article notes that leading medical groups—such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—“condemned the misrepresentation of scientific evidence in the HHS review and reaffirmed that GAC is the evidence-informed and ethical standard of care for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria.”

These papers were counted in the HHS report as incorporated “unsolicited peer reviews” despite being wholly independent and separate ventures.

The HHS report’s “peer review” process was riddled with other abnormalities, too. One contributor admits to creating a rubric for evaluation using Google Gemini AI, a language learning model.

An excerpt from the HHS “peer review” process.

“Now we know why the authors were previously kept anonymous,” Scott Leibowitz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and WPATH board member, told MedPage Today. “Regrettably, this is one of the only fields in medicine where having experience and understanding the complexities are viewed as deterrents rather than assets.”

From the powerbrokers of anti-trans pseudoscience to fresh faces in the field, here are the culprits behind the report.

1. Michael Laidlaw

Laidlaw is a California-based endocrinologist who made a name for himself as a paid expert witness in the “cottage industry” of anti-trans medical professionals. He’s compared gender-affirming care for minors to Nazi eugenics and he helped usher in anti-trans laws in states like North Dakota, South Dakota, and Florida, plus the devastating Skrmetti ruling at the Supreme Court.

Moreover, his ties to Southern Poverty Law Center-designated extremist/hate groups are well-documented. He co-signed an amicus brief with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious fundamentalist organization, and he was a member of the American College of Pediatricians, which was founded for the explicit purpose of advocating against same-sex couples adopting children.

Laidlaw was apparently first radicalized against trans people when a local kindergarten teacher read a children’s book, I am Jazz, to the class, sparking controversy. A disgruntled parent reportedly urged Laidlaw to weigh in, as per his testimony at the anti-trans FTC “workshop” earlier this year.

2. Leor Sapir

The billionaire biotech mogul Joseph Edelman provided nearly half a million dollars to the Manhattan Institute to support the right-wing think tank’s “gender identity initiative.” This helped birth Sapir’s career antagonizing trans people.

Sapir is one of the anti-trans lobby’s most prolific propagandists. He wrote more than 30 articles attacking the community in his first year at the Institute, while also making the media rounds with figures like Dr. Phil and outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Signal. He is a proponent of “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” which paints transness as a social contagion, and “autogynephilia,” a medical framework reducing trans women to a caricature of a fetish.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified Sapir as a key player in “the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network” in collaboration with designated hate groups like the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM).

3. Evgenia Abbruzzese

SEGM, a SPLC-designated hate group with a long history of anti-trans pseudoscience, was co-founded by Abbruzzese in 2019, alongside other anti-trans activists in the health industry.

In 2023, Abbruzzese gave a presentation at a conference hosted by Genspect, another SPLC-branded anti-LGBTQ hate group. During her presentation advocating against providing puberty blockers to trans youth, she repeatedly deadnamed and misgendered Christine Jorgensen, who is widely considered the first out trans celebrity in the country. Notably, the HHS report likewise deadnames Jorgensen.

Like SEGM, Genspect—and Abbruzzese—couch hateful, unscientific rhetoric with that of academia.

“Since its founding, members of SEGM have undertaken a global media and public policy blitz to challenge the affirming care model, advocate against gender-affirming care, and lend scientific credibility to legal claims against LGBTQ+ civil rights,” the SPLC report says. “The group’s endeavors are helped largely by its scientific façade, a general lack of information about its political activities and its members’ affiliations with the anti-LGBTQ+ far right.”

Abbruzzese’s daughter, Maia Poet, is also an outspoken anti-trans activist.

4. Kristopher Kaliebe

Kaliebe is a professor of Psychiatry at the University of South Florida who has found himself in the orbit of more than a few SPLC-branded hate groups. He was an invited speaker to an SEGM conference; he’s a two-time guest of Genspect, where he bolstered the myth that transness is a social contagion; and he’s a friend of the “Do No Harm” podcast. He’s also heavily promoted by Restore Childhood, a Moms for Liberty-backed anti-trans and anti-vaccine group.

“Schools should not socially transition kids,” Kaliebe said as per Restore Childhood. He adds that “it also seems to encourage consideration of a medical pathway”—echoing anti-trans talking points that frame transition as a clinical failure.

Kaliebe has testified against trans health equality in cases across the country.

5. Farr Curlin

At first glance, this Duke University doctor and theologian maintains a lower profile compared to others on the list. He certainly isn’t as embroiled in the trans political sphere. However, earlier this year, he published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal describing transness as a sort of delusion.

“Traditionally, medicine treats a mental disorder by helping the patient align perception with reality—like the reality of a healthy body,” he wrote. “Medicalized gender transition turns this norm on its head, ‘affirming’ the child’s disordered perception and treating his healthy body as a diseased one.”

On Nov. 14, the North Carolina Family Policy Council posted on Facebook that Curlin had been featured as their keynote speaker at a recent gala. This is the state branch of the Family Research Council—also a hate group as per the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“FRC often makes false claims about the LGBTQ community based on discredited research and junk science,” the civil rights organization says of the FRC. It notes the decades-old group has opposed everything from same-sex marriage to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The goal: “To make the case that the LGBTQ community is a threat to American society,” the SPLC reports.

6. Alex Byrne

The MIT philosopher was the first to be reported as an author due to identifying details unearthed in the document’s metadata. Byrne has an extensive history of empowering anti-trans activism.

“His 2019 critique of gender identity was referenced in an amicus brief supporting Florida’s ban on trans health care for minors,” Uncloseted Media reported. “An expert witness for the [anti-trans group] Women’s Liberation Front referenced Byrne at the end of a declaration attempting to force trans women into men’s prisons. And Byrne has given talks at conferences held by Genspect, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.”

Byrne was the first of the authors to be linked to the report after bioethicist and legal scholar Florence Ashley uncovered metadata linking the document to him. He subsequently fessed up to participating in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

7. Moti Gorin

Colorado State University philosophy professor Moti Gorin has been a featured presenter at several SEGM events. He’s a familiar pundit in the anti-trans podcast circuit, and spoke alongside the conservative Sapir at a virtual event for a small non-profit that claims to represent “TERF” and “gender critical” Democrats.

8. Kathleen McDeavitt

This psychiatrist is pursuing her residency at Baylor College of Medicine. She has extensively worked to publish academic papers opposing trans-affirming health care alongside more prominent names in the anti-trans medical advocacy, such as Stephen Levine, Chan Kulatunga-Moruzi and Kristopher Kaliebe.

9. Yuan (Ray) Zhang

Zhang teaches health research methods at McMaster University in Canada. He has also reportedly been commissioned by SEGM to study pediatric health care for trans people.

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Editor’s note: You can read EITM’s fact check of the original HHS review here, which found it replete with factual errors.