FIX EXCLUSIVES
Key Takeaways
- Washington State University suspended courses on gender medicine due to pressure from transgender activists and a review by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, which raised concerns over scientific balance and integrity.
- The courses, developed by the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, aimed to discuss the risks and ethical dimensions of puberty blockers and hormonal treatments for adolescents, but were criticized for their research approach by activist groups.
- Critics argue that the suspension highlights ideological pressures influencing academic decisions, with concerns that dissenting views within the medical community face increasing suppression.
Washington State University suspended a set of continuing medical education courses on gender medicine following pressure from transgender activists that prompted a formal review by the national accrediting body for physician education.
The suspension came after activists and journalists raised concerns about the courses, accusing the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, which created them, of promoting harmful or politically motivated views, The New York Sun reported.
Policy experts, however, told The College Fix these activists are silencing scientific debate and threatening academic freedom.
The courses explored the risks, benefits, and ethical considerations for puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and gender-related surgeries for adolescents.
SEGM organization was founded in 2019 as a loose collective of physicians and researchers concerned about the quality of evidence supporting pediatric gender medicine.
Transgender journalists and activist groups publicly pushed WSU to suspend the courses, criticizing SEGM’s approach to gender medicine research. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of SEGM as a “hate group” added professional and reputational pressure, according to a Substack post by Erin Reed, a journalist involved in calling for the suspension.
Reed wrote that the school’s move to use SEGM’s courses “gives the appearance of legitimacy to a group with opaque funding and a disturbing proximity to far-right, Christian fundamentalist forces.”
“Most damning, critics say, is that listing SEGM as a CME option lends undue legitimacy to a dangerous cell of what the Southern Poverty Law Center has dubbed an anti-trans pseudoscience network,” Reed wrote.
The complaints prompted the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, the national body that approves continuing medical education content, to investigate and instruct the school to suspend all SEGM content pending review, The New York Sun reported.
ACCME requires courses to meet strict standards of scientific balance and educational integrity.
The College Fix reached out to ACCME to inquire about its review of the courses but received no response.
A WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine spokesperson told The College Fix it acted only as an accreditor itself and “did not create or provide these courses.”
The spokesperson said, “accreditation indicates the courses met ACCME’s requirements for scientific balance and educational integrity.”
“This designation does not represent the university’s endorsement or co-sponsorship of the group providing the course. While this process is ongoing, course materials are suspended,” he said.
Critics argue the suspension demonstrates how ideological pressures increasingly influence academic decision-making.
Do No Harm Medical Director Dr. Kurt Miceli told The Fix that the suspension is a threat to both medicine and academic freedom.
“Activists have inflicted a terrible injustice upon SEGM and the broader physician community … These activists have revealed their true priorities—not the advancement of knowledge that could improve care for children struggling with gender confusion, but the preservation of ideology at any cost,” Miceli said.
He also said, “It is deeply troubling that the medical establishment, in concert with radicals, has so aggressively silenced dissenting perspectives.”
Those who don’t align with the dominant activist agenda risk losing publication opportunities, being barred from presenting at conferences, and even having their continuing medical education credits revoked, he said.
“Regardless of one’s personal beliefs, this kind of ideological gatekeeping represents an unacceptable purge—one that endangers not only the integrity of medicine but the broader principles of free inquiry in America,” Miceli told The Fix.
Paul Dupont, director of policy at the American Principles Project, said the suspension is emblematic of broader ideological control in medicine.
“Even as the international medical consensus shifts away from gender ideology, the far left in the U.S. exerts all its influence to enforce orthodoxy… Medicine must be grounded in the pursuit of objective truth,” Dupont told The Fix.
SEGM has defended its work as scientific rather than political.
Dr. Julia Mason, a board-certified pediatrician and SEGM board member, told The New York Sun, “SEGM is not a political or ideological organization; its mission is to strengthen the scientific foundations of clinical care.”
“We are dedicated to advancing the quality of research and clinical understanding in gender medicine, focusing on youth,” she said.
SEGM’s courses included sessions on subjects like transgenderism and brain science, as well as international debates surrounding hormonal treatments for minors with gender dysphoria.
Dr. William Malone, a board-certified endocrinologist and SEGM collaborator, said in the organization’s announcement of the courses, “As the evidence in gender medicine continues to evolve, it is essential that clinicians remain grounded in science and ethics.”
MORE: Harvard report warns of ‘damaging’ grade inflation, 60% of grades are A’s
