Welcome to this week’s Well Beings Roundup.

Every Monday, we scan the landscape of LGBTQ+ health policy, research, and politics to help you stay informed and prepared — because what happens in government chambers and academic journals impacts your work, and the lives of your LGBTQ+ patients and clients, directly.

This week’s edition details Trump’s first 100 days, focusing on the rising tide of political interference in trans health, with deepening threats in the U.S. and UK. From a US whistleblower portal targeting Canadian providers to the UK’s plans to screen all trans youth for autism, we’re tracking where science is being misused, who’s fighting back, and what you need to know to advocate for your patients and clients with clarity.

👉 Plus, for paid subscribers: In the second half of today’s Roundup, we break down new peer-reviewed research on teenage depression, childhood surveillance, the differences between how Democrats and Republicans cite scientific data, and the latest on health disparities across care settings. If you’re not yet a paid member, you’ll see a link to upgrade for full access to the evidence that shapes our care.

Let’s get into it.

This Week in Queer Health Politics

🧬 Trump’s Return Brings Renewed Attacks on Science

As Donald Trump rounds out his first 100 days, policy watchers are raising alarms about the administration's mounting hostility toward transgender people, having “instituted the most anti-trans policies of any president in American history.” Of course, Trump’s disdain for science doesn’t begin or end with trans people.

In the face of the gutting of various national science agencies and the termination of billions of dollars of research programmes and grants, Nature authors Jeff Tollefson, Dan Garisto and Heidi Ledford ask, “Will US science survive Trump 2.0?” detailing how disinformation and intimidation tactics are chilling both LGBTQ+ research and broader public health work. Researchers across the country and abroad are scrambling to save research programs still underway and create data archives to prevent the destruction of life-saving data.

📉 Pseudoscience and Policy: The Rise of “Gender Ideology” Panic

A disturbing new report released by the Trump regime [PDF], being compared to the widely discredited UK “Cass Review” [PDF] is encouraging medical providers to engage their patients in unscientific “conversion therapy” tactics, framing trans healthcare as “gender ideology extremism”. The report lists no authors — a single philosopher’s name has been discovered in the metadata. It also cites a number of nonscientific sources, including an entire page of blog posts by notable anti-trans journalist Jesse Singal, and even includes one citation listed only as, “404 Not Found,” leading critics to suspect the report was largely drafted using generative AI.

Immediately upon its release, the GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality released an unequivocal condemnation of the report. “This is not a scientific review—it’s a political document dressed up to look like medicine,” said Alex Sheldon, MA (they/them), GLMA Executive Director. “By sidelining rigorous evidence in favor of biased opinion, this so-called ‘report’ fails the most basic test of medical integrity and, in doing so, jeopardizes patient care. And the fact that it explicitly disclaims any clinical relevance should tell us everything we need to know. It is not designed to inform medical care; it is meant to politicize it.”

Trans journalists like Erin Reed at Erin in the Morning have already released thorough fact checks of the report, breaking down how its narrative distorts reality and harms patients. For The Conversation, Associate Professor and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Coastal Carolina University, Ina Seethaler dug into the ideology behind Trump’s attack on so-called gender ideology.

🧨 U.S. Whistleblower Site Targets Trans Care — and Canadian Providers

The Trump team’s newly launched whistleblower portal for reporting gender-affirming care is raising international alarm — especially as it appears to have been purposefully coded to accept international addresses for Canadian providers. In the wake of the Ohio Supreme Court upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth, as more and more trans people and parents of trans kids consider fleeing, many are concerned this move will lead to increased persecution of medical professionals who attempt to cross the border into the US.

🧪 Misusing Science to Undermine Trans Care

There’s a growing trend of distorting scientific literature to justify anti-trans policy — and researchers are pushing back. Erin in the Morning fact-checks the latest example: a Finnish report now being misused globally to discredit gender-affirming care. Together, these articles emphasize the urgent need for providers to stay informed, resist bad-faith narratives, and advocate for evidence-based, affirming practices.

⚖️ UK Supreme Court Ruling Fuels Backlash Against Trans Women

A recent UK Supreme Court ruling declaring that “trans women are not biological women” has sparked outrage across the medical and activist communities. The British Medical Association condemned the language, while many fear the decision sets a dangerous precedent for clinical care and public policy. A powerful op-ed by Maddison Stoff in Medium challenges the biological essentialism behind the decision, affirming the lived realities of trans women and the science that supports gender diversity.

🚨 NHS to Screen All Trans Youth for Autism Before Care

The UK’s National Health Service is moving forward with a controversial policy to screen all trans youth for autism before they can access gender-affirming care. There is a nuanced relationship between gender identity and autism spectrum conditions, and recent research has reaffirmed that trans people have higher rates of autism on average compared to cisgender people. While people actively seeking an autism diagnosis are often forced to wait years in the NHS queue, critics of this decision are concerned that neurodivergence will be used as an excuse to deny transgender youth necessary care.

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