Welcome to Gender Analysis

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Zinnia Jones

Gender Analysis is a web series launched in 2014 exploring transgender science and life experiences in depth, and revealing the many insights to be found at their intersection. We take a closer look at fields such as sociology, public health, psychiatry, cognitive science, and more, weaving these diverse perspectives into a deeper understanding of gender-related phenomena. Gender Analysis goes beyond the 101s to educate both trans and cis viewers on some of the most fascinating dimensions of our lives – and the pressing issues we face in society.

Support Gender Analysis on Patreon

New episodes of Gender Analysis are published several times a month and are backed by our generous supporters on Patreon. Want to learn more? Check out our instant index for a quick introduction to the wide range of topics we cover:

Curious about…?

Gender dysphoria Self-discovery
How hormones work Bathroom bills
Finding a doctor Treatments for trans youth
Passing Sexuality
Transness and autism Paul McHugh
Regret and detransition Sex chromosomes
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The far-right law firm Alliance Defending Freedom offered a Florida anti-trans hate group $15,000 to “refute” the WPATH Standards of Care “for use in litigation”

Posted on May 17, 2023 by Zinnia Jones

A wider lens on the American College of Pediatricians.

Recent subpoenas by Republican state governments against trans-supportive professional and medical organizations

  • In 2022 and 2023, professional organizations endorsing gender-affirming care received extensive subpoenas from the states of Alabama and Florida during cases on the states’ legislation and policy limiting access to transition treatment for trans youth and adults. These subpoenas and other requests for production of documents have demanded several years of the groups’ internal discussions and deliberations on their support for gender-affirming treatment, as well as other material relating to their trans-supportive position statements.
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Endocrine Society (ES), and World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) received subpoenas beginning in August 2022 in Boe v. Marshall (previously Eknes-Tucker v. Ivey, the suit against Alabama’s total ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youth). In November 2022, Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) subpoenaed these three groups and more than a dozen other trans-supportive professional organizations who had submitted amicus briefs in the case against the state’s Medicaid coverage exclusion for transition care (Dekker v. Weida challenging Rule 59G-1.050(7)). This April, State Rep. Randy Fine of the Florida House Health and Human Services Committee was authorized to issue subpoenas against the Florida Chapter of the AAP (FCAAP), promptly resulting in a lawsuit (FCAAP v. Fine, doc 10-1; April 23, 2022 Renner letter to Fine).
  • Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall explained his justification for the subpoenas in a filing with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel Roger Brooks: “How did those groups come to their conclusions? Do the positions represent the considered view of membership, or only of carefully ‘stacked’ committees? What process did they use to determine who would have input, and who would not? Did the groups conduct systematic examinations of the scientific literature, or did they cherry-pick studies? In short: Is there evidence indicating that the alleged ‘consensus’ is not actually based on best scientific practices but, at least in part, on ideology, self-interest, organizational politicking, or other considerations?” (Boe v. Marshall, doc 219, Jan 17, 2023)
  • When the AAP, ES, WPATH and others challenged the AHCA’s subpoenas, Secretary Jason Weida argued: “Openness and transparency are hallmarks of the scientific method. Casting themselves in the underlying case as the standard bearers of the prevailing scientific view regarding gender dysphoria treatment—and used as such by Plaintiffs—the non-parties now seek to shield their perspective from any scrutiny. The non-parties refuse to answer whether their perspective is the result of careful study and debate among their memberships or the result of a handful of people dictating a result, as a past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested.” (In re subpoenas served on AAP et al., doc 11, Jan 20, 2023) That past president is Joseph Zanga, founder of the American College of Pediatricians.

Continue reading →

Posted in American College of Pediatricians, Catholic Church, Dekker v. Weida, Faith and religion, Florida, Health care, Hoaxes, Law, Politics, Regret and detransition, Rhetoric, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Andre’s opinion”: Florida Medicaid agency paid thousands to a hate group leader to help ghostwrite their anti-trans policy; he copied nearly all of his sources from the hate group

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Zinnia Jones

Dr. Andre Van Mol is a leader of the SPLC-recognized hate group American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) as well as the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and is an elder at Bethel Church in Redding, California. This church and its “dead raising teams” have notably attempted to reanimate long-dead bodies via prayer. Van Mol has served as co-chair of ACPeds’ Committee on Adolescent Sexuality with past executive director Michelle Cretella, and was hired in April 2022 by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to assist in drafting reference material to justify the planned exclusion of transition care from Florida Medicaid coverage. Continue reading →

Posted in American College of Pediatricians, Dekker v. Weida, Faith and religion, Florida, Law, Politics, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What we learned in April about the Florida AHCA’s Medicaid transition care exclusion Rule 59G-1.050(7) and subsequent litigation in Dekker v. Weida: Summary

Posted on April 30, 2023 by Zinnia Jones

Summary

In August 2022, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) enacted rule 59G-1.050(7) revoking state Medicaid coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries. This rule and the Florida Boards of Medicine’s administrative bans on trans youth care were supported by the AHCA’s June 2 Generally Acceptable Professional Medical Standards determination, which was the product of a highly nonstandard process uniquely involving anti-trans experts from outside the agency. The rule was promptly challenged in a September 2022 suit against AHCA by plaintiffs Dekker et al. (4:22-cv-00325); a preliminary injunction was denied and the challenged exclusion has remained in effect pending trial in May 2023.

“A conclusion in search of an argument”

On Friday, April 28, 2023, the plaintiffs filed their trial brief (Doc. 199) with over 350 attached exhibits containing information about the AHCA’s anti-trans rulemaking process that was not previously known to the public. This evidence confirms early coordination between the office of Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Health, and the AHCA at meetings in early April 2022 (Doc. 200-5). AHCA chief litigation counsel Andrew T. Sheeran was even seeking out anti-trans expert witnesses, including Quentin Van Meter (Pl. 337) and anti-gay conversion therapy provider Miriam Grossman (Pl. 274), prior to FLDOH’s April 20, 2022 anti-trans press release. A series of diagrams dated to June 2022 describe a “Gender Dysphoria/Transgender Health Care Policy Pathway” (Plaintiffs’ trial exhibit 296), “Non-Legislative Pathway” (Pl. 295), and “Projected Rulemaking Timeline” (Pl. 294), beginning with state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo’s April anti-trans guidance and ending in June-September 2022 with “Care Effectively Banned”. This indicates that the AHCA had not initiated an open-ended assessment of evidence on certain medical treatments with the possibility that this evidence could be persuasively robust, but rather that this exclusion was already decided at the outset. Jeffrey English, AHCA’s “GAPMS guy”, called the finding “a conclusion in search of an argument” (Doc. 199). Continue reading →

Posted in Florida, Health care, Law, News, Politics, Rhetoric, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Round two: Gender Analysis calls on Florida Boards of Medicine to stop the trans youth care bans and investigate critical irregularities in the rulemaking process

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Zinnia Jones

Previously:

From:

Zinnia Jones and Heather McNamara
Gender Analysis
Seminole County, Florida

To:

Paul Vazquez, J.D.
Executive Director, Board of Medicine/MQA
4052 Bald Cypress Way, Bin #C03
Tallahassee, FL 32399-3253

Danielle Terrell
Executive Director, Board of Osteopathic Medicine/MQA
4052 Bald Cypress Way, Bin #C06
Tallahassee, FL 32399-3256

Re: Proposed Rules 64B8-9.019 and 64B15-14.014 F.A.C. (“Standards of Practice for the Treatment of Gender Dysphoria in Minors”)

Short title: Gender Analysis FLBOM complaint 2

To the Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine:

This message is a followup to our December 2, 2022 complaint and call for a rule hearing on the Boards’ trans youth care bans (Gender Analysis FLBOM complaint 1). Gender Analysis of Seminole County, Florida reiterates our call for the Boards of Medicine to repeal proposed rules 64B8-9.019 and 64B15-14.014 due to extensive irregularities, undisclosed biases and conflicts of interest during the rulemaking process. We repeat our previous objections as stated in our first complaint, and we now bring to your attention several additional issues that have emerged over the past two months. These recent developments further confirm that the trans youth care bans were the fixed outcome of a fatally compromised process and should be invalidated in their entirety by the Boards at the upcoming February 10, 2023 joint meeting. Continue reading →

Posted in Catholic Church, Faith and religion, Florida, Health care, Politics and law, Psychology and psychiatry, Replies, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Florida’s newest Boards of Medicine appointees wrote an anti-trans letter calling for gender “exploratory” therapy, citing a report of a trans teenager being involuntarily hospitalized for nearly two years

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Zinnia Jones

Previously:

Background

On December 2, 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Monica M. Mortensen to the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine, followed by the appointment of pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Matthew R. Benson to the Board of Medicine on December 28. Benson previously spoke in favor of the state Medicaid trans care exclusion Rule 59G-1.050(7) at a July 8, 2022 AHCA meeting, and coauthored a September 23 letter to the Boards of Medicine with Mortensen and seven others in support of the trans youth care bans 64B8-9.019 and 64B15-14.014.

Benson and Mortensen’s positions are relevant to an ongoing issue: although the Boards of Medicine voted to advance the trans youth care ban at the November 4 meeting, it has not yet taken effect. Another joint meeting on the ban will now take place on February 10 in response to calls for a rule hearing from Southern Legal Counsel, ACLU of Florida, Gender Analysis and others. Public comment is now open for the upcoming hearing until February 7 at BOMPublicComment@flhealth.gov. Benson and Mortensen’s letter provides important clues to how they will likely approach this rule and other issues involving gender-affirming care as Board members, and this letter warrants extended analysis. Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Florida, Gender dysphoria, Health care, Politics and law, Psychology and psychiatry, Regret and detransition, Replies, Rhetoric, Trans youth, Transphobia and prejudice | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment