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'The HHS Report Was Put Out to Give Cover to Oppose Transgender Healthcare': Janine Jackson ([link removed])


Janine Jackson interviewed Erin in the Morning's Erin Reed about transgender care "questions" for the May 23, 2025, episode ([link removed]) of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

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WaPo: Good questions about transgender care

Washington Post (5/11/25 ([link removed]) )

Janine Jackson: Washington Post and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos was clear in saying ([link removed]) that only certain ideological presuppositions would be acceptable from here on in, when the paper canceled ([link removed]) a prepared endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, and canceled ([link removed]) a cartoon critical of Donald Trump, and a number of other things. And that sound you heard was many people moving the Washington Post from one place to another in their brains.

But the Post is still the leading daily in the lawmaking place of this country, and what they say has influence on people who have influence. So when the Post editorial board described a report on trans healthcare ([link removed]) from the Health and Human Services Department—now headed by Robert F. “I don't think people ([link removed]) should be taking medical advice from me” Kennedy Jr.—as “thorough and careful,” that was going to have an impact.

The piece ([link removed]) , headed “Good Questions About Transgender Care,” really raised deeper questions about corporate news media and their role in the world we have, and the world we need today.

Erin Reed is the journalist and activist behind Erin in the Morning ([link removed]) . She joins us now by phone from Gaithersburg, Maryland. Welcome to CounterSpin, Erin Reed.

Erin Reed: Thank you so much for having me on.
Scientific American: What the Science on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids Really Shows

Scientific American (5/12/22 ([link removed]) )

JJ: An idea can be utterly discredited—evidentially, scientifically—but can still have resonance for people who just feel like certain things are true. The Post, well, first they point out that this HHS report is "more than 400 pages, including appendixes," so you're supposed to sit up straight. But the message is that the HHS report is a review of the existing literature on best practices around healthcare, and that it's "careful" and "thorough."

I feel like when anti-trans media is cartoonish, it's almost easier to bat away. But when something like this comes from a paper of record, it makes it more difficult. So let me just ask you, what are you making of this Post editorial?

ER: Yeah, so a little bit of background. This HHS report was produced specifically because the science on transgender healthcare ([link removed]) has been so clear for so long. There's been repeated study after study ([link removed]) , coming out in the most prestigious journals, showing the positive impact of transgender healthcare on those who need it. And so the HHS report was put out in order to give cover to organizations that want to oppose transgender healthcare.

And that's what we got with the Washington Post editorial page, where the editorial board basically endorses the report. It goes through the report and says that it's a great report, essentially, and that it raises great questions about transgender healthcare and more.
WaPo: RFK Jr. will order placebo testing for new vaccines, alarming health experts

Washington Post (5/1/25 ([link removed]) )

Whenever I read something like that from the Washington Post editorial board, though, and then I see how that same board and how that same paper treats everything else that RFK Jr.’s healthcare team puts out—for instance, vaccines ([link removed]) , autism ([link removed]) , fluoridation in water ([link removed]) and more—there's this double standard whenever it comes to transgender healthcare. The paper is willing to point out the lack of science behind this particular department's positions under RFK Jr. for all of these other things, but it seemingly ignores that whenever it comes to transgender people.

JJ: And yet they refer to—they're scientistic. They say that this report "concurs with other systematic reviews.” They give all the gesturing towards the idea that this is science here—and yet it's not.

ER: And the report itself was anonymously written ([link removed]) . They didn't release any of the names of the people who worked on the report; however, they left the EXIF data in. And so you could actually see the person who compiled the report, and it was Alex Byrne ([link removed]) , is the one who's on the EXIF data in the PDF.

And what that says is that they're not using experts here. Alex Byrne is a philosophy major ([link removed]) . That's not somebody who's ever worked with gender-affirming healthcare, and not somebody who's ever worked with transgender people.
Erin in the Morning's Erin Reed

Erin Reed: "What we have is another example of the relentless pseudoscience coming out of this healthcare department under RFK Jr."

We are seeing these attacks on transgender healthcare using these mechanisms, like the RFK Jr. healthcare department, trying to dictate what science is by fiat, trying to say that it doesn't matter what the studies say, it doesn't matter that all the medical organizations and the people that work with transgender people say that this healthcare is saving lives. We are going to dictate what is science and what is not.

I read the whole 400-page report. I read all of anything that comes out about transgender healthcare, because that's my job; I'm a journalist covering this topic.

And the report, if you read it, it's not a scientific document. It's not something that has new information. It's not something that studies transgender healthcare, it deadnames historical transgender figures ([link removed]) , it calls transgender healthcare a “social contagion ([link removed]) .” And it advocates for conversion therapy ([link removed]) of transgender people, explicitly so, in many instances.

And so I don't think that what we have is a good scientific document that raises important questions on transgender healthcare, like the Washington Post editorial board claims. Instead, what we have is another example of the relentless pseudoscience coming out of this healthcare department under RFK Jr.

JJ: Part of that involves relabeling, and you just mentioned conversion therapy. And I think a lot of listeners will say, “Oh, I've learned about what that means. It involves telling queer people they're not queer, they're mentally ill.” But the Post has something to say about how—or maybe it's the report itself—how, Oh, no, no, no, this isn't conversion therapy. What's going on there?

ER: Yeah, so the original report advocates for something known as “gender exploratory therapy ([link removed]) .” And I have done a lot of investigations on this particular modality of therapy that's being promoted by people on the anti-trans right.
Erin Reed: "Gender Exploratory Therapy": A New Anti-trans Conversion Therapy With A Misleading Name

Erin in the Morning (12/20/22 ([link removed]) )

So gender exploratory therapy, it sounds good. It sounds like something that we want. Like of course, if somebody is transitioning, we would love for them to have a good and open environment to explore their gender identity. And that is what we have right now.

But that's not what gender exploratory therapy is. Gender exploratory therapy is a very kind-sounding name for a repackaged version of conversion therapy.

Essentially, what this modality of therapy does is, let's say you're a transgender youth. You're 14, 15, 16 years old, and you are considering transitioning. What they will do is, they will take you, and they will try to blame your gender identity on anything other than being trans, repeatedly. They'll go from thing to thing to thing to thing.

And the important point here is that these therapists will never approve your transition. They will never write a gender-affirming care letter for you. They explicitly won't do that. If you go to the website ([link removed]) of the Gender Exploratory Therapy Association, you'll find that this group ([link removed]) has filed amicus briefs against transgender bathroom usage in schools, or that this group has filed amicus briefs against transgender participation in sports like darts. We see that this is not a neutral sort of modality.

The closest comparison that many of your listeners will probably understand is crisis pregnancy centers ([link removed]) , where they've used this name “crisis pregnancy centers" to try to say that if you're seeking an abortion, that this is a good clinic to go to. But if you know anything about crisis pregnancy centers, the way that they work is by delaying abortion until it's no longer feasible. And that's the exact same way that GETA works, and that's what we see being promoted by this report.

JJ: Finally, in terms of media, who we know often or virtually always set things up in a “some say, others differ” framework, they're quoting the Washington Post editorial and other outlets, acknowledging the place where they say ”critics have been scathing.”—this is the Post—"critics have been scathing about what they see as the report's biases and shortcomings, but it makes a legitimate case for caution that policymakers need to wrestle with.”

And I would just ask you, finally, to talk about this media idea of somehow the truth is in the middle on issues. And then, also, Oh, all we're asking for is caution. Who's against caution? And, additionally, anyone who criticizes it is an activist and an interested party, other than these disinterested scientists and ethicists at the Washington Post.

ER: So I'm actually going to push back slightly and make an even broader point here.

JJ: Please.

ER: “Both sides” coverage and “the truth is in the middle” coverage and “giving both sides a chance to make their point,” that would be an improvement for what we have right now, with transgender reporting and reporting on transgender healthcare.

JJ: Absolutely.
Them: 66% of New York Times Stories About Trans Issues Failed to Quote a Trans Person

Them (3/28/24 ([link removed]) )

ER: Because, let me tell you, whenever you look at the New York Times, whenever you look at the Washington Post, and the way that transgender healthcare is covered right now, the experts, the transgender people, the transgender journalists like myself, are not given the space to make their points. They're not given the space to make the case for scientific healthcare, and for good treatment of LGBTQ people and transgender people.

But you'll see the New York Times publish three-, four-page spreads ([link removed]) attacking transgender healthcare ([link removed]) , from people who have made it their job to attack transgender people. You'll see the editorial board at the Washington Post explicitly advocate for a healthcare report done by the RFK Jr. healthcare team, targeting transgender people. And whenever it comes to the transgender people, and whenever it comes to the experts ([link removed]) and the medical organizations ([link removed]) and the Yale physicians ([link removed]) , they're written off as just activists.

And so this is not even “both sides” reporting. It's not even “the truth is in the middle” reporting. These papers have taken a position on this ([link removed]) , and it's a position that's not supported by the science. It's a position that's not being practiced, importantly, by the people who are giving out that transgender healthcare, who are treating transgender people, day in, day out, who see these patients and understand the impact that gender-affirming care has on their lives.

So I guess what I'm just really trying to say is, I wish they would platform transgender people ([link removed]) . I wish they would platform the doctors. I wish they would platform the medical organizations, but they don't.

JJ: It feels like you're telling me what better reporting would look like, yeah?

ER: I’m trying.

JJ: Erin Reed is the journalist and activist behind Erin in the Morning. Thank you so much, Erin Reed, for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

ER: Of course. Thank you so much for having me.


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