Two doctors from Harvard Medical School have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its removal of articles about their research regarding health treatments for members of the LGBTQ community.
Drs. Celeste Royce and Gordon Schiff, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), filed the lawsuit on Tuesday against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in a Boston federal court.
The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has censored the doctors’ medical research under an executive order aimed at eliminating gender ideology from the federal government. The plaintiffs argue that the decision to remove their work from a government-run patient safety website violates their First Amendment rights and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)
The medical professionals had published peer-reviewed medical studies on AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNET), which is a government website aimed at giving doctors key resources for patient safety research. The purpose of their studies is to highlight medical risks – especially when it comes to gender identity and other issues.
The lawsuit claims the AHRQ “removed private doctors’ peer-reviewed articles from a patient safety website solely because they happen to contain the terms ‘LGBTQ’ and ‘transgender.’”
However, Schiff’s study covers other areas of medical concern.
High risk groups include male sex, veterans, Indigenous tribes, Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ) as well as more obvious populations such as those with serious mental illness, prior suicide attempts, ideation/attempts, alcohol or substance use, serious recent illness or emotional distress trauma or loss, history of recent trauma or loss.
As an example, the lawsuit cites Dr. Royce’s study noting that “endometriosis can occur in trans and non-gender-conforming people and lack of understanding this fact could make diagnosis in these populations even more challenging.”
The plaintiffs explain that the AGRQ only offered to restore the articles if references to trans-identified individuals and LGBTQ people were deleted.
President Donald Trump shortly after taking office signed Executive Order 14168 which instructed federal agencies to purge content that “promotes gender ideology” while recognizing that there are only two genders.
The lawsuit further argues that the removal of the articles violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights “because it imposes a viewpoint-based restriction in a government forum.”
The doctors also argue that the removals were arbitrary and capricious and not backed by evidence or adequate justification, which violates the APA. They assert that the OPM overstepped its legal boundaries in censoring medical research, which goes beyond its authority, according to the lawsuit.
So far, there has been a barrage of lawsuits against the Trump administration over the president’s executive orders and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Many have used the Administrative Procedures Act to challenge the president’s policies, so it is no surprise that these doctors are taking the same legal route.
However, the notion that the government should promote gender ideology is absurd. The government’s role is to protect our rights, not pander to progressive orthodoxy.
Moreover, it is also worth asking: Why should the government be a resource for medical professionals? There are countless medical journals and authors who provide guidance and material for doctors. Surely there are other ways for these individuals to obtain the information they need without relying on the state, aren’t there? If this isn’t the case, then we might have a whole other set of problems.
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