HHS report rejecting child sex changes due to ‘very weak evidence’ was written by a liberal majority

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – One of the mostly liberal authors of an anonymous Department of Human Health and Services (HHS) review published in May, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post on Thursday detailing how the report found that “gender-affirming” procedures for minors “rests on very weak evidence.”

The HHS review detailed the lack of scientific evidence upholding the use of “gender-affirming” care for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, a form of psychological discomfort with one’s gender. Alex Byrne, a philosophy professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) noted in his op-ed that the HHS review was not written by “zealots busily grinding axes,” but instead by a “majority” of liberals — of which he is one.

“The review was prompted by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump at the end of January, which set for us a May 1 deadline,” Byrne wrote. “The order’s inflammatory and tendentious language understandably roused suspicions among liberals. But the review wasn’t written by zealots busily grinding axes. In fact, liberals were in the majority. Some of us were paranoid that the White House would try to control the content of the review or even alter it pre-publication; that worry proved unfounded.”

Additionally, Byrne wrote in the op-ed that “after surveying all the evidence,” he and his predominantly liberal co-authors found that child sex changes are “not empirically or ethically justified.”

“The review adds to the work of Hilary Cass, a respected British pediatrician, who concluded in a report commissioned by health authorities in Britain that this ‘is an area of remarkably weak evidence,’” Byrne wrote. “Cass was chosen because she is not a gender clinician and can thus assess the field impartially. Subsequently, Britain’s (left-wing) Labour government banned puberty blockers for the treatment of gender dysphoria outside clinical trials indefinitely. The government’s health secretary is considering similar restrictions on cross-sex hormones for patients under 18.”

Between 2019 and 2023, 13,994 minors underwent sex change treatments in the U.S., according to data from the Stop The Harm Database.

Byrne wrote further that the HHS review “describes how the medicalized ‘gender affirming care’ approach to treating pediatric gender distress, endorsed by the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, rests on very weak evidence.” Byrne added that while medical procedures “always have downsides,” “no reliable research indicates that these treatments are beneficial” to children’s mental health.

“Such a culture is animated by the scientific spirit — a willingness to question assumptions, to seek new evidence, and to resist pressure to conform from our in-group,” Byrne wrote. “That is exactly what has been missing from the debate over youth gender medicine, and we liberals must take some blame. The more liberals who can rise above tribal loyalties and publicly dissent, the better.”