A Response to the November 19, 2025 HHS Report
From the Human Rights Alliance of Santa Fe
On November 19, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on pediatric gender dysphoria that presents itself as a neutral analysis of evidence. It reviews psychotherapy, puberty blockers, hormone treatment, social transition, and surgery for gender-diverse youth — and ultimately recommends extreme caution and clinical delay. In theory, that may sound responsible. In reality, it risks becoming a policy of withholding care. A pause in treatment may appear safe on paper, but in the lives of LGBTQIA young people, delay often translates into despair. There is no pause button on a child’s development, identity, or safety.
Most troublingly, the November 19 report treats transgender youth as ideas to be studied instead of human beings to be supported. It does not meaningfully engage transgender lived experience, nor acknowledge the overwhelming research demonstrating improved mental health outcomes when gender-affirming care is provided responsibly — with careful evaluation, informed consent, and appropriate follow-up. Across decades of data and real-world practice, gender-affirming care has shown reductions in suicide attempts, depression, and self-harm. Those outcomes are not abstractions. They come from actual lives, lived with courage in the face of stigma, isolation, or risk. A policy that ignores that truth is not evidence-based — it is incomplete.
The medical and mental health communities have responded with remarkable clarity. In the wake of the November 19, 2025 report, major professional organizations — those who serve youth directly — have issued public responses challenging its conclusions:
• The American Medical Association (AMA) reaffirmed that gender-affirming care, when responsibly administered, is medically necessary.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said the report conflicts with established pediatric standards and clinical evidence.
• The American Psychological Association (APA) warned that so-called “exploratory therapy,” if misapplied, may echo coercive practices that the mental health profession has long rejected.
• The Endocrine Society maintained that hormone therapy for youth remains a valid component of appropriate care.
• And WPATH — the World Professional Association for Transgender Health — stated plainly that the November 19 report misrepresents global research and threatens the wellbeing of young people.
These organizations do not deal in theories. They care for real patients — young people who deserve to be heard, respected, and guided, not judged or delayed. Their message is consistent: responsible gender-affirming care saves lives.
And the LGBTQIA community is far broader than this report acknowledges. Youth who are questioning, searching, discovering, and naming their identity — whether or not they seek medical intervention — deserve environments that support their dignity, mental health, and human development. They need counselors and educators who listen with curiosity, not skepticism. They need providers who see them as full people, not political abstractions.
The question before us is not whether evidence matters. Evidence always matters. The question is whether evidence will be interpreted with compassion, humility, and an understanding of real human lives. Science and care do not compete with one another — but science must be guided by lived experience, especially where youth safety is concerned.
The Human Rights Alliance believes firmly that every LGBTQIA young person deserves three things: the right to bodily autonomy, the time to grow into their authentic self, and health care that listens before it prescribes. Effective care does not begin with suspicion. It begins with trust. It does not dictate identity. It accompanies identity as it unfolds.
The November 19, 2025 HHS report may raise valid questions — but our communities already carry many of the answers. The truth is not found only in charts and citations. It is found in the lives of young people who have fought to exist — and in the care of those who helped them make it through.
Identity is not a debate. It is a becoming. And every young person deserves the chance to become fully themselves.