The War on Trans Healthcare Is Not About Science What a study of 957 detransitioners revealed, and why Washington gets it wrong, with Dr. Kinnon Ross MacKinnon

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of a Supreme Court ruling on conversion therapy and its impact on trans healthcare and the LGBTQ+ community.

Trans healthcare is an evolving discussion, and the implications greatly affect those in the LGBTQ+ community. At its heart, this is a conversation about the science meant to inform transition-related healthcare care, and what happens when politics deliberately distorts it. On March 31, 2026, The Supreme Court handed down an 8-to-1 ruling that conversion therapy, a practice every major medical and mental health organization has condemned as harmful and without scientific basis, now qualifies as “protected speech” under the First Amendment. The case, Chiles v. Salazar, centered on a Christian counselor in Colorado who argued that a state ban on the practice violated her right to speak freely with her clients. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, declared that the First Amendment “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.” Only Justice Jackson dissented, warning that the ruling “misreads our precedents, is unprincipled and unworkable.” This decision puts laws in 23 states and the District of Columbia at serious risk. It tells LGBTQ+ young people that any licensed therapist with a personal ideological or religious…

People in this episode

Hosts: Dr. Steven Hassan, MeidasTouch Network

Guest: Dr. Kinnon Ross MacKinnon

Topics covered

• trans healthcare
• LGBTQ+ rights
• politics and science
• conversion therapy
• Supreme Court ruling
• detransitioners
• healthcare policy

Keywords

• trans healthcare
• conversion therapy
• LGBTQ+ community
• Supreme Court
• detransitioners
• political distortion
• healthcare rights

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York Times

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