Please join us on Friday, April 11, for a department talk with Professor Joanna Wuest. 

 

Agents of Scientific Uncertainty: Understanding Conflicts over Gender-Affirming Care Bans

Gender-affirming care is based on dangerously uncertain science. So say lawmakers in the 26 states that have banned medical interventions for minors. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether to uphold these regulations of what critics have called “experimental” healthcare. To the contrary, leading domestic and international medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and World Professional Association for Transgender Health firmly support gender-affirming care for minors as medically necessary and potentially lifesaving. If the medical establishment isn’t driving this narrative of dangerous uncertainty, who is? This talk will detail and interrogate popular scientific arguments against gender-affirming care and reveal how those arguments tend to distort scientific evidence and exaggerate real uncertainties and risks.