The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report in August 2026 linking support for gender-affirming care to what it termed "Left-Wing Authoritarianism" and a "willingness to justify political violence." The report, titled "Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?", was authored in part by Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist with the Manhattan Institute. The agency did not subject the report to peer review, and its underlying funding and data were not initially made public, though Wright stated the data would be released soon and the paper eventually submitted to a scientific journal.
The report follows a series of actions by the Trump administration to restrict gender-affirming care. In August 2026, the administration announced it would end Medicaid and CHIP funding for such care for youth, citing an HHS review that claimed existing evidence for treatment was "low-quality." Additionally, President Trump signed executive orders in early 2025, including "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," which redefined sex-based terms in federal policy.
Academic experts and former health officials have questioned the HHS report's methodology and findings. Liliana Mason, a political psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, stated the survey sample overrepresented Democrats and omitted the context that approval for political violence exists across the political spectrum. Alexander Tsai, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote that the report's core conclusion regarding "ideological accelerants" was not supported by the data presented. Wright defended the research, stating the term "gender ideology" accurately captures belief systems and that the report was not intended to argue that violence is uniquely left-wing.
The administration’s focus on "gender ideology" has led to concrete changes in how the federal government communicates health information. In early 2025, researchers at the CDC were instructed to remove terms such as "gender," "transgender," and "non-binary" from reports and websites. A content analysis of womenshealth.gov found that between January and February 2025, the administration removed information regarding reproductive rights and maternal health disparities, replacing it with content focused on "biological truth" and the exclusion of transgender athletes from women's sports. These changes signal a precedent where political directives can lead to the removal of established medical resources from public-facing federal databases.
The situation has also resulted in increased legal and physical risks for medical professionals. Six states now classify the provision of gender-affirming care as a felony, and healthcare clinics have reported threats of violence, including bomb threats and arson attempts. In response to the federal executive order prohibiting funding for institutions providing such care to minors, several clinics in states where the care remains legal have preemptively suspended services. The legal standing of these bans and federal orders remains subject to ongoing court challenges, including the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Skrmetti, which is expected to yield a decision in 2025 regarding the constitutionality of such restrictions.