Conservative social media influencer resurrects decade-old debunked study to bash gay parenting

Michael Knowles

Earlier this week, failed actor and successful conservative social media influencer (which really isn't a stretch from failed actor) Michael Knowles thought he was cooking with the following tweet about gay parenting:

His goal was to prove that gay parenting was not good for children. What he ended up proving was how folks on his side of the spectrum rely on junk science to craft false conclusions.

One source who Knowles refers to as Sullins is Catholic University priest and professor Paul Sullins. He has written papers attacking gay parenting. The flaws in these papers have been pointed out on many occasions. 

In 2016, Nathaniel Frank of The Slate had this to say about his methods:

 . . . Sullins’ most recent study was published in an Egyptian-based open access journal that requires authors to pay for publication, creating a conflict of interest since publishers who ought to perform quality control have a financial incentive to accept papers, regardless of quality. The journal’s publisher has been criticized for a lax peer-review process that isn’t even overseen by a real editor.

. . . In (Sullins; study), he claims “adults raised by same-sex parents were at over twice the risk of depression” developing later in life as those raised by different-sex couples. He calls it the “first study to examine children raised by same-sex parents into early adulthood” and claims it “contribute[s] new information for understanding of the effects of same-sex parenting through the life-course transition into early adulthood.” Except, as with the other studies making similar claims, it does no such thing. Sullins found 20 cases of what he calls “adolescents with same-sex parents.” 

Yet we know nothing about how long these subjects lived with a same-sex couple, much less whether they were “raised” by one. In fact, we know from other research (and common sense, mixed with a dose of history) that the majority of individuals with a gay parent were born into families that were not headed by same-sex parents, but by either single parents or a different-sex couple. Sullins thus has no grounds on which to define his subjects as having been “raised” by “same-sex parents,” which would be essential for his entire anti-LGBTQ claim to make any sense.

The other source Knowles mentioned is a doozy:

Children of LGBT parents fare worse on 77/80 social outcome measures (Regnerus, 2012).

Knowles's citation comes from the 2012 study, New Family Structures Study by University of Texas professor Mark Regnerus. The study made the claim that children in same-sex households suffer immensely.  When published, it naturally caused a firestorm. It came out during what could be seen as the last stages of the gay marriage fights. At the time, the argument was steadily making its way through the courts and those who opposed gay marriage were losing case after case.

That last fact is a very important part to the story.  The Regnerus study was bought and paid for by the opponents of gay marriage in an attempt to gain some momentum.

According to a February 22, 2014 article in The New York Times:

In meetings hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington in late 2010, opponents of same-sex marriage discussed the urgent need to generate new studies on family structures and children, according to recent pretrial depositions of two witnesses in the Michigan trial and other participants. One result was the marshaling of $785,000 for a large-scale study by Mark Regnerus, a meeting participant and a sociologist at the University of Texas . . . 

. . . . Among those at the Heritage meetings was Luis E. Tellez, president of the Witherspoon Institute, a religious-conservative research center in Princeton, N.J. His organization seized the baton, signing up Dr. Regnerus, who was known as a skilled quantitative researcher, mainly on adolescent sexuality and religion, and as a Roman Catholic and opponent of same-sex marriage. The institute gave Dr. Regnerus $695,000; the Bradley Foundation, a grant-making organization that supports conservative causes, gave him $90,000, according to his résumé.

When organizations which oppose gay marriage give a professor - who opposes gay marriage himself - over a half a million dollars to create a study about gay parenting, how do you think said study will turn out? The question of bias was raised loudly and extensively by supporters of gay marriage and journalists. 

And the flaws found in the study itself didn't help matters.  The media watchdog site Media Matters for America pointed out five major flaws in Regnerus study including the fact that Regnerus himself admitted that the study did not prove that same-sex parenting caused a negative outcome for children.

How Regnerus defined gay parent was also a major subject of contention.

John Corvino in a June 11, 2012 article in The New Republic:

Question: What do the following all have in common? 

A heterosexually married female prostitute who on rare occasion services women 

A long-term gay couple who adopt special-needs children 

A never-married straight male prison inmate who sometimes seeks sexual release with other male inmates 

A woman who comes out of the closet, divorces her husband, and has a same-sex relationship at age 55, after her children are grown 

Ted Haggard, the disgraced evangelical pastor who was caught having drug fueled-trysts with a male prostitute over a period of several years 

A lesbian who conceives via donor insemination and raises several children with her long-term female partner 

Give up? The answer—assuming that they all have biological or adopted adult children between the ages of 18 and 39—is that they would all be counted as “Lesbian Mothers” or “Gay Fathers” in Mark Regnerus’s new study, “How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study” (NFSS).

From CBS News on June 12, 2012:

"Whether same-sex parenting causes the observed differences cannot be determined from Regnerus' descriptive analysis," said Cynthia Osborne, associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. 

"Children of lesbian mothers might have lived in many different family structures, and it is impossible to isolate the effects of living with a lesbian mother from experiencing divorce, remarriage or living with a single parent. Or it is quite possible that the effect derives entirely from the stigma attached to such relationships and to the legal prohibitions that prevent same-sex couples from entering and maintaining 'normal relationships'."

The goal of Regnerus's study - as you can easily guess - failed miserably. We won the right to marry, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Not quite. As seen by Knowles resurrecting Regnerus's work, those on his side of the spectrum are counting on short memories and immense engagement to win their argument, in spite of the lies they spin

But I am glad that anti-LGBTQ activists like Knowles are reaching back into the past. A lot of folks don't remember how common it was for the anti-LGBTQ industry to push flawed studies by discredited researchers against LGBTQ people.  And I have 20 years of "receipts to prove it. For example, one person they loved to cite was a discredited researcher named Paul Cameron who once claimed that gays stuff gerbils up their rectums. But more about him later. I have a feeling that grifters like Knowles will bring his name up for me.

From the HB & HM archives - All of the 'evil and dirty' things that the gays do

If the LGBTQ community actually had the time to "recruit children" in addition to all of the other nefarious things we are accused of doing, maybe we should be praised for having incredible time management skills.

Editor's note - September 2026 will mark the 20th year anniversary of Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters. In celebration, I will from time to time republish some of my favorite blog posts of the past. This one itself (published in 2021) is actually a shortened version of a 2014 post. It's more succinct and very apt at this moment in the country, especially taking into account yesterday's post involving the gay parents being accused by a far-right influencer of endangering their infant son.

Yesterday, courtesy of People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, I read Ohio anti-gay activist Phil Burress make a claim that gay men have "as many as 200 sex partners."

A day later, Burress' outrageous claim continues to haunt me not only for its inanity but because it brings to focus something which has been dwelling in my mind for a long time in little bits and pieces.

I've read and heard so accusations against the lgbt community by the religious right that I've now come to the conclusion that these folks are just sloppy with what they say. Seriously, it's as if they don't care that eventually, someone will demonstrate just how incoherent their claims are.

So with that in mind, bear with me here. The following are the claims made about the lgbt community over the years by religious right and anti-gay activists:

Gays are sick people:

 Their [gay] minds are perverted, they’re frankly sick people psychologically, mentally, and emotionally.” – Bishop EW Jackson 

 Yet almost all gays make lots of money:

 “You know, I saw yesterday how much -- how much money the homosexual community has. I mean, good gracious, the average homosexual makes four times more than I do . . . I mean, they're not -- these people are not in poverty or hurting or denied or anything else.” – Donald Wildmon, American Family Association 

Gays are only a small part of the population: 

“Relying on three large data sets: the General Social Survey, the National Health and Social Life Survey, and the U.S. census, a recent study in Demography estimates the number of exclusive male homosexuals in the general population at 2.5 percent and exclusive lesbians at 1.4 percent.” – Family Research Council in its inaccurate brief “Homosexuality and Child Abuse” 

 Yet gays “control” the culture: 

“Homosexual activists in many ways, drive our culture, they decide what’s going to be in a movie, we see all the portrayals, homosexuals are the most positively portrayed in the movies and on television.” – Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth 

 Gays “bully” all of those who oppose them: 

“Instead, what we have is the gay Gestapo who go out and try to intimidate morally, economically, professionally, and personally anyone who speaks out against the homosexual agenda.” – Jeffrey Kuhner, The Washington Times 

Gays “Recruit” children:

 “. . . Folks who cannot reproduce want to recruit your children. What we are facing is a radical force of people who want to change what America looks for the next twenty years . . .” – Bishop Harry Jackson 

And are plotting to either destroy or change America and “silence” Christians:

 “Those special gay rights would require Christians not to speak against –would require us Christians not to speak against homosexual rights . . . because if we did, we could be charged with bullying or censored for it.” – Buster Wilson, American Family Association 

“Through a carefully crafted, decades-old propaganda campaign, homosexuals have successful cast homosexuals - many of whom enjoy positions of influence and affluence - as a disadvantage minority” – Matt Barber, Unmasking the “Gay” Agenda 

And while generating all of this mayhem, gays still manage to find time to have all sorts of mind-boggling wild sex with multiple partners:

“One study determined that homosexual males have from between 20 to 106 sexual partners per year. It’s no wonder that homosexual men account for over 50% of all hepatitis cases, and still account for over 50% of all AIDS cases despite the fact that they only make up 1-3% of the population.” – Matt Barber, The Gay Agenda vs. Family Values, December 12, 2004 

“Homosexual activists claim their lifestyle, which in some cases includes thousands of sexual partners, should be sanctioned, protected, and granted special rights by society. Would you critique this stance?“ – a question on Dr. James Dobson's web page. Dobson is the former head of Focus on the Family.

Allow me to surmise.  According to the religious right, the lgbt community is comprised of sad and sick individuals who make a lot of money, who are only a very small of the population but yet control the culture, bully those who oppose us, recruit children, and work to silence Christians and alter America while finding the time to have lots and lots and lots of sex.

Wow! How do we find time to do all of that? How do we find time to be all of that?

While RFK, Jr's anti-trans policy is struck down in federal court, gay father 'handles his business' against influencer's attack on his family

Ryley Niemi, a far-right influencer (right) tricked a gay couple into being interviewed and then began peppering them with questions while implying that they were endangering their son. It did not end well for him.

Two incidents took place the past weekend which piqued my interest so much that I couldn't spotlight just one.  One involved a much-needed court victory for the trans community, while the other could be seen as a bit more complicated.

Item 1 - From The Advocate:

A federal judge in Oregon on Saturday forcefully struck down Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to impose far-reaching restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, ruling the policy unlawful and blocking its enforcement in the states that challenged it.

 In a final judgment dated April 18, U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai vacated the so-called "Kennedy Declaration," finding it exceeded the administration’s authority, violated federal rulemaking requirements, and conflicted with existing law. The court held that federal officials "lack the authority to unilaterally establish standards of care" for gender-affirming treatment and cannot exclude providers from Medicare or Medicaid for offering care consistent with accepted medical guidelines. 

Judge Kasubhai also permanently enjoined the federal government from enforcing the declaration or any similar policy against providers in the plaintiff states, ordering agencies to halt enforcement and notify officials within seven days. 

 

To say that Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai simply went off against RFK, Jr and his attempt to restrict gender-affirming care for trans youth would be an understatement. Judge Kasubhai made it very clear where he stood: 

 “Unserious leaders are unsafe. There is nothing more serious than our leaders’ dedication to the rule of law so that we might maintain the integrity of our constitutional democracy,” Kasubhai wrote. “This case highlights a leader’s unserious regard for the rule of law,” the judge continued, adding that such disregard “does not merely result in an abstract infraction” but “causes very real harm to very real people.” 

 . . . The opinion sharply criticized the policy's rollout, noting that Kennedy “unlawfully issued a declaration threatening to cut federal funding” to medical providers and failed to follow required rulemaking procedures. If the administration had acted lawfully, the judge wrote, “there might have been ample time and opportunity” for providers, families, and children — “all people and institutions of our great nation” — to adjust or seek alternatives. Instead, the abrupt threat of enforcement “caused chaos and terror for all those people and institutions of our great nation.”

I have no doubt that the Trump Administration will appeal this decision . . . after it is done licking its wounds.

Now to Item 2 and it is controversial.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryley Niemi (@ryley.niemi)

 

 From LGBTQNation:

A gay dad of an infant has been charged with a felony after an altercation with a right-wing media personality who questioned his and his husband’s ability to raise a baby without a mother. Video circulating on social media shows Anthony Vulin, a member of West Hollywood’s Business License Commission, and his husband, David Vulin, being interviewed by anti-LGBTQ+ commentator Ryley Niemi. Anthony Vulin told the WeHo Times that the interview team lied to the couple and told them they were from CNN. 

 “We were walking home on Santa Monica Boulevard,” he said. “There were four guys – three of them had cameras and one of them had a suit on and a mic. They said they were from CNN and wanted to talk to us about our baby.” But it soon became clear the interviewer was not from CNN as he began to ask them hostile and homophobic questions.

Feel free to read the rest of the article or see the above footage. Long story short - After Niemi implied that the couple were predators "buying children," one daddy held the child while the other "took care of business." While I am not one for violence except for in the case of self-defense, I stand with the father. Completely, wholeheartedly, and unapologetically.

The funny part of it all is while Niemi is trying to generate support and pity for what happened to him, a lot of folks on social media - on the left, middle, AND right support the gay couple. 

Unfortunately, though:

David Vulin was arrested for assaulting Niemi but released after about 12 hours, according to Anthony Vulin. He was ultimately charged with a felony for “vandalism with loss valued equal or greater than $400” for allegedly damaging a camera. Anthony Vulin told the WeHo Times he did no such thing.

Both the Vulins and Niemi have launched GoFundMe campaigns. I will not link to Niemi's site but go here if you want to help the Vulins.

And I want to make a general comment about the incident.

In the past months, there has been an acceleration on social media attacking same-sex families. Far-right commentators such as Matt Walsh have been attacking our families, while far-right influencers have been pushing out-of-context videos to denigrate gay parents. They seek to create a narrative that gay parents are rich men "buying children" via surrogacy in order to treat the children like accessories or, even worse, attain the children for sexual purposes.

We all know this is a lie, but we also know how those on the far-right will constantly repeat a lie in order to drown out the truth. I anticipate that we are going to see more stunts like Niemi's and more ugly lies told about our families in the near future. And while our responses need not be as violent as Mr. Vulin, an aggressive tone is very suitable.

In other words, DO NOT F@K with our families.

Libs of TikTok fails in attempt to generate problems for USC's drag show event

Editor' note - I was aware of this so-called controversy when Libs of TikTok sent out its initial tweet. I chose not to write about it because I didn't want to bring attention to what she was doing, no matter how small the attention my post may generate. I had a feeling that it would end exactly how it did with egg all over Chaya Raichik's face.

Chaya Raichik via her venomous site Libs of TikTok tried to cause trouble 'The Birdcage,' an annual drag event at the University of South Carolina. She failed.

On April 7, the anti-LGBTQ site Libs of TikTok posted the above tweet on Twitter attacking "The Birdcage" at the University of South Carolina. The Birdcage is an extremely popular drag event which has been held on campus for the past 27 years. It's obvious that Chaya Raichik (who runs the Libs of TikTok site and has been named by some as the Basic Barren Buzzard of Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry) thought she could control the narrative by appealing to fears and prejudices about drag shows and LGBTQ people in general. She thought wrong.

Raichik did catch the attention of SC Congresswoman Nancy Mace:

Of course this shouldn't be seen as a problem to The Birdcage, due to Mace's infamous reputation of desperate publicity-grabbing stunts and ridiculous attacks on the LGBTQ community; attacks which have been more transparent than a sheet of clear plastic wrap with a giant hole in the middle. Mace later sent out a boring "how dare tax dollars be spent on this filth flarn filth" tweet

The big tell is what USC tweeted back to Libs of TikTok:

To me, that sounded like USC's polite way of saying. "Chyle, sit your sorry, trifling bigoted ass down. This event is not paid for by tax dollars and if you think that we are going to interfere with probably the most popular campus event for the past 27 years simply because you got a hang up against drag queens, you're deluded."

Okay maybe my interpretation of USC's message is strictly wishful thinking on my part (and I wanted to say uglier stuff), but I think folks reading this can get the general gist.

So, what happened next? The event was still held - on Tuesday - and was successful and quite fun. It seems Raichik's attempt to cause problems for the event had the opposite effect. I'm told that the controversy she attempted to cause and Mace were both mentioned during the event by performers.

I'm hoping that this ends the nonsense Raichik and her site was trying to cause. But if not, it's safe to say that Round One easily went to the Birdcage and the USC students who supported it.

And another thing . . . in spite of Raichik's fearsome reputation of causing problems for the LGBTQ community and our allies, this is - as far as I am aware - the second time she and her Libs of TikTok site went after South Carolina's LGBTQ community and failed. In October of 2022, she posted videos of our annual Pride event in an attempt to generate hysteria. Aside from her customary (and downright inanely monstrous) supporters, her attempts failed to garner a reaction.

Maybe we're too "boring" to be weaponized by Raichik. Does anyone have a thong I can use?

On second thought, never mind. 

I'm trying to generate controversy, not audition for the part of Medusa in a remake of Clash of the Titans.

'WNBA's Brianna Turner - Policies scapegoating trans women and athletes are distractions, don't protect women's sports' & other Mon/Tue news briefs

WNBA star Brianna Turner

I'm a WNBA player. Don't use athletes like me to exclude trans women - 

 The IOC has a documented history of refusing to actually protect women in elite sports, and their current invocation of protection does anything but. 

Policies that single out transgender women and athletes with intersex variations do not protect women’s sports. They manufacture a scapegoat while the real challenges to women’s sports go unaddressed: unequal funding, limited access to training and facilities, pay disparities, male-dominated leadership, gender-based violence and harassment across race, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. Focusing on who should be allowed to call themselves a woman distracts from the structural inequities that actually limit women’s opportunities. 

 This policy also invites unequal scrutiny for women who already face heightened suspicion; Black and Brown athletes and competitors from the Global South will be unfairly targeted. 

New report shows affirming adults are critical to the success of LGBTQ+ students - 

 LGBTQ+ students with access to more supportive educators, anti-bullying policies that explicitly mention sexual orientation and gender identity, LGBTQ+-inclusive learning, and GSA presence reported a higher sense of belonging and higher GPAs, the survey revealed. 

The good news is that about 70% of LGBTQ+ students reported having six or more adults at school they could count on for support. These adults help by displaying “safe space” stickers, advising GSAs, or giving LGBTQ+-inclusive lessons, among other actions. That support, in turn, led to better student outcomes, including a lower likelihood of absenteeism due to safety concerns, less harassment or assault, higher GPAs, and a sense of belonging among LGBTQ+ students. 

Conservative Parents Are Suing a Minnesota School District for Letting Trans Kids Use Bathrooms -

 A conservative parents’ group is suing a Minnesota school district over its transgender-inclusive bathroom policy, one month after the Trump administration announced its own suit against the state’s Department of Education.

 . . . Minnesota has emerged as a major battleground in the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against trans students’ rights, which Trump has waged since the first day of his second term. The president’s offensive against Minnesota also comes on the heels of this year’s disastrous “Operation Metro Surge,” during which ICE agents swarmed Minneapolis neighborhoods and killed at least two people, including queer resident Becca Good. 

LGBTQ+ groups score legal victory over Trump, restoring Pride flag at Stonewall National Monument - 

 The rainbow Pride flag will return permanently to the Stonewall National Monument after the federal government agreed to reinstall it as part of a legal settlement ending a high-profile lawsuit over its removal.

LGBTQ community explores arming up during heated political times - 

 “I want to be able to defend my community, especially being in political spaces and queer spaces,” said Snively, a trans woman. “It’s just having that extra line of safety, having that extra peace of mind would be important to me.” 

Snively is among what some say is a growing number of LGBTQIA+ gun owners across the United States. Gun rights organizations and advocates say interest in gun ownership appears to have increased in that community since President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. It began with outrage. It ends, for now, with a guarantee.

Author of Finnish study on trans youth has ties with anti-trans 'medical' group SEGM & history of anti-trans activism

The credibility of a controversial Finnish study on trans youth by Riittakerttu Kaltiala (seen here speaking at a 2023 conference held by anti-trans 'medical' group SEGM) is being called into question due to her ties with SEGM and history of anti-trans activism.

UPDATE - Some people are NOT happy with this post. Pan to after the "related posts" to read just a few of the messages I received on Twitter.

In my last post, I wrote about a Finnish study which anti-trans "medical" group SEGM claimed proves that gender-affirming care does not improve mental health of trans youth. 

Two things about it:

1. One of the sources I cited said that in spite of its flaws and limitations, the study is useful as a political document and will be cited on numerous occasions by those who oppose gender-affirming care. Unfortunately, this is true. SEGM's tweet has already reached over one million hits.

2. This is important. Apparently, the study has a conflict of interest. 

According to trans activist and substacker Erin Reed:

The study, published in the low-impact journal Acta Paediatrica, comes from Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a Finnish psychiatrist with extensive ties to at least one anti-LGBTQ+ hate group and a history of anti-trans political advocacy. The study uses Finnish registries and psychiatric visit data to support these conclusions. However, a closer examination reveals the study to be fatally flawed: it does not actually measure what it claims to measure, its headline finding is a massive artifact of surveillance bias, the clinics practices were abusive, and it operates within a system where its findings were essentially baked in from the start—regardless of what the actual mental health impacts of gender-affirming care might be.

The anti-trans hate group Kaltiala is connected to is SEGM - the same group which praised her study. 

In a piece Reed wrote in June 2024:

Importantly, members and associates of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) have recently played a significant role in the Cass Review, a supposedly “independent” review now being cited to crack down on transgender care in England and the United States. Recent investigations revealed that multiple SEGM members and associates were part of advisory groups to the review with secret memberships. One such person was Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a Finnish psychologist who prominently presented at the latest SEGM conference and has been closely associated with SEGM, which denies her membership due to the organization having “no official members.” Dr. Kaltiala facilitated a meeting between Dr. Cass and Dr. Patrick Hunter, a DeSantis medical board pick and member of Genspect. Dr. Cass later shared information with the team according a letter obtained exclusively by this publication. Dr. Kaltiala went on to “meet regularly” with the DeSantis appointees and even testified in favor of Florida’s ban on transgender care.

I've seen numerous tweets and articles (mostly in right-wing publications) praising the study, but none of them mentioned Kaltiala's connection with SEGM or her anti-trans activism. Some may argue that Kaltiala's personal bias and connections aren't a big deal. I'm guessing they will then push a "whataboutism" narrative.

 Regardless, there should have been some effort by SEGM and others promoting her study to be more forthcoming as to who she is because a serious conflict of interest does exist. Them not being forthcoming raises questions about the study's credibility.

Especially considering how a scenario not unlike this one played out over a decade ago.

This situation involving SEGM,  Kaltiala, and her study on trans youth is somewhat eerily similar to a situation in 2012 when Mark Regnerus, a University of Texas professor, published a study which claimed that children in same-sex households face numerous problems. It was later discovered that study was funded by conservative group at the amount of $695,000.  Other conservative and anti-LGBTQ groups tried to pass it off as objective and accurate in spite of the errors in its conclusion and methodology.

Related posts:

Fact Check: New Finnish "Study" Does Not Prove "Trans Youth Care Leads To Worse Outcomes" 

 Unfin(n)ished Business: What the Finnish Registry Study Can and Cannot Tell Us About Mental Health in Gender-Dysphoric Youth

Editor's note - I did NOT expect that the impact of this post would be so extensive. Apparently, I ruined some people's day and they let me know it. The following three are along the lines of the messages I received on Thursday:

Finally, being the proud Black Southern queen that I am, I had to engage in a little reading

Anti-transgender 'medical group' SEGM faces criticism for its interpretation of Finland study

SEGM, an anti-trans 'medical group,' got pushback after it implied that a Finland study refutes the belief that gender-affirming therapy helps trans youth.

Those who have followed this blog over the years (it will be 20 this September) know that a feature is me calling out the religious right and the anti-LGBTQ industry when they create junk science and distort legitimate studies to demonize LGBTQ people. It's been a while since I've done this, so I think today is a good time to throw one out with the help of people more knowledgeable on this particular subject that I am. 

First, a little background.

The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM)  is an organization which claims to "promote safe, compassionate, ethical and evidence-informed healthcare for children, adolescents, and young adults with gender dysphoria."

However, its critics claim that the group pushes anti-transgender misinformation under the veneer of legitimate science. In 2024, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated SEGM as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.  The year before, SPLC issued an extensive report on how SEGM works with other anti-LGBTQ groups in legitimizing bigotry as science: 

 The report, Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives, also known as Project CAPTAIN, unpacks the proliferation of biased and misleading information used — under the guise of science — in state and federal legislation and litigation over the last decade and exposes the far right and far-reaching network behind it. 

 Researchers from the SPLC’s Intelligence Project identify a network of over 60 groups, including Alliance Defending Freedom, the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine and Genspect, with nearly 1,000 shared connections that have mobilized their efforts to challenge the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards, advance the so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights” and recruit for Project 2025. Project CAPTAIN lists the 100 commonly cited sources used by anti-LGBTQ+ actors to make junk science claims, including research papers and letters to the editor, that attack the scientific consensus of gender-affirming care, defend conversion therapy and generate moral panic over trans people. 

 “We show how this network of anti-LGBTQ+ actors have built a political and PR machine that twists data and opinion from a very small minority of the medical community and positions it as mainstream,” said R.G. Cravens, senior research analyst for SPLC’s Intelligence Project. 

 In 2021, The Trans Safety Network published an extensive report on SEGM's ties to other anti-LGBTQ groups, its campaigning against trans health funding, and questions about its funding. 

All of this background leads to a recent tweet SEGM sent out trumpeting the "results" of a Finland study on gender-affirming care for kids:

 

Finland’s data are critical in the current debates on pediatric gender medicine. To our knowledge, Finland is the only country reporting full registry data, meaning outcomes are captured for all patients. By contrast, Dutch follow-up studies rely on later volunteers, with dropout…

— SEGM (@segm_ebm) April 4, 2026

This claim was retweeted by many of SEGM's supporters, i.e. folks who want to ban gender-affirming therapy for trans kids (and probably trans adults.) However, there was some pushback calling out how SEGM interpreted the study.

 

pic.twitter.com/9OVeYapzx6

— LGBwiththeT (@LGBwiththeT) April 6, 2026

Dr. Laura Targownik sent out a series of tweets analyzing the study and SEGM's claim. Targownik has been called "a prominent leader in advocating for gender equity and transgender health rights within the medical profession."

The following are a few excerpts.

 

THERE IS A LOT IT DOESN'T TELL US!

1) In the patients who received gender interventions, we don't know if the increased use of psych services occurred after, during, or following the intervention, and for how long

2) we don't know if the psych visits were for management of…

— 👩‍⚕️ Dr. Laura 👩‍⚕️ (@datadriven_tdoc) April 5, 2026

Also,

MOST IMPORTANTLY, THERE IS LITTLE IN THE DATA TO SUPPORT SEGMs ASSERTIONS ABOUT PSYCH "SYMPTOMS" WORSENING AFTER TREATMENT

this study assessed psych service utilization, and did not measure symptoms

there is no way to assess mental or overall well being/quality-of-life, given…

— 👩‍⚕️ Dr. Laura 👩‍⚕️ (@datadriven_tdoc) April 5, 2026

Finally, and perhaps more importantly,

ZOMBIE STUDIES NEVER DIE!!!

The trans care evidence base is littered with what I call "zombie literature": severely methodologically flawed or limited studies that get repeatedly cited by supporters of a particular theory of a case as "proof" of a preferred outcome, and which… pic.twitter.com/HPxj3ik6c5

— 👩‍⚕️ Dr. Laura 👩‍⚕️ (@datadriven_tdoc) April 5, 2026

Not unlike other anti-LGBTQ groups masquerading as legitimate medical organizations, SEGM seems to be more interested in creating a narrative instead of genuine scientific research.