Advocates Urge Defense of Trans Youth Care in FTC Comment Period’s Final Days

An open comment period put forward by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding gender-affirming care for transgender youth is set to close this Friday.

Many trans health advocates believe the comment period, formally called a Request for Information (RFI), is a ruse — a means by the administration to selectively pick comments in order to justify bans on health care for trans youth.

Indeed, the RFI uses leading questions, asking commenters to express how they “may have been exposed to false or unsupported claims about ‘gender-affirming care,’ especially as it relates to minors,” to “gauge the harms consumers may be experiencing.”

It’s unclear how the responses will be used — however, FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson’s leadership during the Trump administration thus far has included a number of anti-trans actions, including hosting a workshop this summer entitled “The Dangers of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors.”

In actuality, gender-affirming care, including for youth, is based on decades of research and supported by a number of leading health organizations, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Nurses Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization (WHO), among many others.

“Critics of our gender-affirming care policy mischaracterize it as pushing medical or surgical treatments on youth,” wrote former American Academy of Pediatrics president Moira Szilagyi back in 2022. “In fact, the policy calls for the opposite: a holistic, collaborative, compassionate approach to care with no end goal or agenda.”

Trans rights advocate Allison Chapman, a civil rights and health equity fellow at Lawyers for Good Government, criticized the FTC’s approach to the comment period.

“The FTC is clearly on a fishing expedition, looking for responses that will justify its predetermined position,” Chapman told Truthout. “The questions posed are written in a way that leads commenters toward the answers the FTC wants to receive.”

Chapman added:

I’m concerned that this framing could cause well-meaning people to unintentionally misrepresent their experiences with this life-saving healthcare. I’m also concerned it may discourage people with positive experiences from commenting at all, given the clear animus in the wording.

“Despite this bias, it is crucial that those with any experience with gender-affirming care provide honest feedback to the FTC,” Chapman concluded.

Advocates for Trans Equality has warned that the FTC’s request will likely be used “to attack the field of gender-affirming care.”

“The FTC’s actions are not grounded in evidence and are a distortion of the agency’s mission to protect the public from actual deceptive practices,” the organization states on its website, adding that this moment “is a critical opportunity to submit your public comments in support of gender-affirming care for adolescents.”

Advocates for Trans Equality is urging people with family members who have received gender-affirming care — or those who have received such care themselves — to flood the comment period, providing honest characterizations of their positive experiences.

The comment period ends this week. As of Wednesday morning, over 6,000 responses have been logged into the FTC’s RFI site.

Truthout has uncovered dozens of instances where opponents of gender-affirming care have used templates to express their opposition, rather than detailing their own personal experiences. Often these templates parrot falsehoods and transphobic beliefs, rather than actually documenting wrongdoing by health practitioners or providers.

Conversely, several commenters have detailed the positive effects of gender-affirming care for themselves or their loved ones.

“As someone who was once a transgender child, Gender Affirming Care saved my life and saved my quality of life…. Years later, I am more accepted by strangers since my gender expression and physical appearance align more closely, and much more importantly I feel completely at home in my body,” an anonymous commenter wrote in early September. “I am no longer suicidal and my social network has increased exponentially due to the resources provided both medically and socially.”

“Gender affirming care saves lives. It has saved my life and the lives of those around me,” that commenter added.

“I am a registered nurse who has cared occasionally for transgender people. … Is the FTC poised to prohibit transgender care on the grounds that it is a ‘deceptive’? Such a course of action would be an unnecessary, harmful and intrusive action into the lives of families who are trying to do the best for their loved ones,” another commenter wrote.

“I have had loved ones and family members who have sought and received gender-affirming care, some as adults and a few as minors. In all cases, it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience,” another anonymous writer chimed in. “In some cases, it has been vitally necessary and life-saving. The people in my life and in my family who have received gender-affirming care have been happier, healthier, and less stressed as a result. Watching them blossom into their truest, happiest versions of themselves has been a joy and a privilege.”