Response to Conversion Therapy Report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a report that attacks the evidence-based Standards of Care for transgender youth and throws the weight of the federal government behind dangerous, discredited practices known as conversion therapy and its euphemisms.

PFLAG National CEO Brian K. Bond said the following in response to this report:

“PFLAG parents with transgender children are good and decent people who trust the experts when it comes to the health, safety and well-being of their family. That means working with doctors who follow the standards of care and clinical guidelines that have been recognized as authoritative for decades by trusted mainstream medical organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association.

“What HHS is proposing in this report is replacing proven, trusted, successful medicine with a dangerous and discredited practice. It’s promoting conversion therapy by another name, and it’s not safe – for anyone. Transgender people, and all of us, deserve the best medical care science, research, and world-class standards can provide — but this report is the opposite.”

Trusted mainstream medical organizations oppose this report:

• Statement  from the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American Osteopathic Association and American Psychiatric Association
• Statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics

* The report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can be found here.