Ethics and Public Policy Center vs. transgender people
The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) is a conservative American nonprofit think tank. EPPC is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025 and has produced consistently anti-transgender output.
EPPC has been involved in opposition to transgender rights and what it calls “gender ideology” since the mid-2010s. In 2021, EPPC named anti-trans extremist Ryan T. Anderson as president. Anderson was previously a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
Background
EPPC was founded in 1976 by Ernest W. Lefever (1919–2009).
In 2003, EPPC founded The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society. In 2018, The New Atlantis became independent of EPPC, published by the Center for the Study of Technology and Society.
Anti-trans activism
Starting in 2016, EPPC fellows and staff began publishing writing attacking trans-inclusive policies around public accommodations in sex-segregated facilities like bathrooms.
By 2020, EPPC’s work increasingly focused on trans healthcare for young people.
In February 2021, EPPC launched the Person and Identity Project (PIP), directed by Mary Rice Hasson, to provide religious and pastoral resources opposing “gender ideology.”
In 2022 and 2023, EPPC expanded substantially into litigation and administrative advocacy. Its scholars filed amicus briefs and public comments opposing gender-transition coverage, federal “gender-affirming” healthcare requirements, and transgender-inclusive policies in schools and government programs.
In 2024, EPPC participated in litigation challenging medical transition for minors, opposed federal recognition of gender identity in healthcare regulations, and filed a Ninth Circuit brief defending a Catholic hospital’s refusal to cover gender-transition treatment. In October 2024, EPPC filed briefs supporting Tennessee’s restrictions on trans healthcare for young people in United States v. Skrmetti.
In 2025, EPPC continued this strategy through Supreme Court litigation, including Mahmoud v. Montgomery County, while advocating against “gender ideology” in public-school curricula. EPPC was a prominent force in efforts to replace the term “gender-affirming care” with “sex-rejecting procedures.”
EPPC maintains a list of amicus briefs submitted in opposition to trans rights.
Programs
- Administrative State Accountability Project
- Bioethics, Technology, and Human Flourishing
- Catholic Studies
- Catholic Women’s Forum
- The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture
- Economics and Ethics
- Education and American Ideals
- Evangelicals in Civic Life
- Life and Family Initiative
- Person and Identity Project
People
Board
- J. Robison Hays, III, Chair
- Robert P. George, Vice Chair
- Mary Ellen Bork
- Eric S. Cohen
- Howard A. Dahl
- Joseph D. (Nick) Decosimo
- Leonard A. Leo
- Wilfred M. McClay
- Barb Van Andel-Gaby
Fellows
- Rachel Roth Aldhizer: Visiting Fellow
- Erika Bachiochi: Fellow
- Nathanael Blake: Fellow
- Patrick T. Brown: Fellow
- Jennifer Bryson: Fellow
- Theresa Farnan: Fellow
- Mary FioRito: Cardinal Francis George Fellow
- Michael Fragoso: Fellow
- Devorah Goldman: Fellow
- Jamie Bryan Hall: Fellow
- Mary Rice Hasson: Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow
- Aaron Kheriaty: Fellow
- Eric Kniffin: Fellow
- Stanley Kurtz: Senior Fellow
- Francis X. Maier: Senior Fellow
- Noelle Mering: Fellow
- Clare Morell: Fellow
- Rachel N. Morrison: Fellow
- John D. Mueller: The Lehrman Institute Fellow in Economics
- James Mumford: Visiting Fellow
- Henry Olsen: Senior Fellow
- Jennifer Patterson: Senior Fellow
- Alexander Raikin: Visiting Fellow
- Aaron Rothstein: Fellow
- Katelyn Walls Shelton: Visiting Fellow
- Luma Simms: Fellow
- Carter Snead: Fellow
- Carl R. Trueman: Fellow
- Algis Valiunas: Fellow
- Andrew T. Walker: Fellow
- George Weigel: Distinguished Senior Fellow
- Edward Whelan: Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair
- Stephen P. White: Fellow
Former fellows
- Alexandra DeSanctis: Visiting Fellow
- Adam Keiper: Fellow
- Brad Littlejohn: Fellow, 2022–2025
- Carrie Gress: Fellow
- David Gortler: Fellow
- Gabrielle Girgis: Postdoctoral Fellow
- Josh Good: Fellow
- Ian Lindquist: Fellow
- Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry: Fellow
- Roger Severino: Senior Fellow
- Peter Wehner: Senior Fellow
- Mona Charen: Senior Fellow
- Yuval Levin: Fellow / Hertog Fellow
- James C. Capretta: Fellow, later Senior Fellow
- Lance Morrow: Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow
Staff
- Ryan T. Anderson: President
- Mitchell S. Muncy: Executive Vice President
- Ed Whelan: Vice President (and President emeritus)
- Cynthia Searcy: Vice President of Development
- David Budzynski, CPA: Director of Finance and Administration
- Hunter Estes: Director of Communications
- Ella Ramsay: Director of Publications
- Elizabeth Winston: Director of Grants
- Analiese Gilmore: Operations Coordinator
- Maddy Pelletier: Program Coordinator
- Clare Scott: Special Events Coordinator
- Samuel Lucas: Legal Associate
- Clare Martin: Development Assistant
- Helen Schlueter: Program Assistant
- Sophie Fink: Operations Assistant
References
Staff report (May 1, 2025). President Trump Announces Religious Liberty Commission Members. The White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/05/president-trump-announces-religious-liberty-commission-members/
Selected writing by EPPC
Kniffin, Eric; Hasson, Mary Rice; Morrison, Rachel N. (January 20, 2026). Public Comment Re: HHS Proposed Rule, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance, RIN 0945-AA27. Ethics and Public Policy Center https://media.eppc.org/2026/01/EPPC-Comment-HHS-Gender-Dysphoria-as-Disability-26-01-20.pdf
Hasson, Mary Rice; Morrison, Rachel N.; Kniffin, Eric (November 14, 2025). Public Comment Re: ICD-10-CM Committee and HHS Consideration of Proposed Codes for “Gender Identity Disorder, in Remission (Desistance).” https://media.eppc.org/2025/11/EPPC-Comment-on-Proposed-ICD-10-Codes.pdf
Kniffin, Eric; Hasson, Mary Rice; Morrison, Rachel N. (May 2, 2025). Terminology and Definition: Replacing “Gender-Affirming Care” with “Sex-Rejecting Procedures.” Ethics and Public Policy Center https://media.eppc.org/2025/09/Replacement-Term-for-GAC.pdf
Kniffin, Eric N. (December 19, 2023). Brief of Amicus Curiae Ethics and Public Policy Center, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Scardina, No. 23SC74 (Colo. Dec. 2023). https://media.eppc.org/2024/01/2023-12-19-Masterpiece-Cakeshop-Amicus-Brief.pdf
Kniffin, Eric N.; Hasson, Mary Rice (October 25, 2023). Brief of Amicus Curiae Ethics & Public Policy Center in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant and Reversal, Christian Healthcare Centers, Inc. v. Nessel, No. 23-1769 (6th Cir. Oct. 25, 2023). https://media.eppc.org/2023/10/CHC-Amicus-Br-PIP-research-standing.pdf
Severino, Roger; Morrison, Rachel N.; et al. (October 13, 2023). Brief of Former Civil Rights Officials as Amici Curiae Supporting Appellants, Dekker v. Weida, No. 23-10978 (11th Cir. Oct. 2023). https://media.eppc.org/2023/10/CA11-43-Severino-et-al-Amicus.pdf
Morrison, Rachel N.; Hasson, Mary Rice (June 17, 2022). Brief of Amicus Curiae Ethics & Public Policy Center in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees and Affirmance, Franciscan All. v. Becerra, No. 21-11174 (5th Cir. June 2022). https://media.eppc.org/2022/06/EPPC-Amicus-Brief_Franciscan-Alliance-v.-Becerra.pdf
Morrison, Rachel N.; Hasson, Mary Rice (July 5, 2022). Brief of Amicus Curiae Ethics and Public Policy Center in Support of Defendants-Appellants and Reversal, Eknes-Tucker v. Alabama, No. 22-11707 (11th Cir. July 2022).
https://media.eppc.org/2022/07/EPPC-Amicus-Brief_Eknes-Tucker-v.-Alabama.pdf
Kniffin, Eric N.; Hasson, Mary Rice; et al. (March 25, 2022). Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners, Doe v. Madison Metropolitan School District, No. 2021AP001901 (Wis. Mar. 2022). https://media.eppc.org/2022/03/EPPC_Wisconsin-brief.pdf
Morrison, Rachel N. (2022). Gender Identity Policy Under the Biden Administration. 23 Federalist Society Review, 85 https://media.eppc.org/2022/05/Morrison_FedSoc_Gender-Identity-Policy-Under-the-Biden-Administration.pdf
Anderson, Ryan T.; Severino, Roger; Morrison, Rachel N.; Hasson, Mary Rice (January 27, 2022). Public Comment Re: EPPC Scholars Comment Opposing Proposed Rule “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2023,” RIN 0938-AU65. https://media.eppc.org/2022/01/EPPC-Scholars-Comment-Opposing-SOGI-Insurance-Mandate.pdf
Hasson, Mary Rice; Anderson, Ryan T. (December 13, 2021). Brief of Amicus Curiae Ethics and Public Policy Center in Support of Plaintiff-Appellant and Reversal, Tingley v. Ferguson, Nos. 21-35815 & 21-35856 (9th Cir. Dec. 2021).
https://media.eppc.org/2021/12/Amicus-Curiae-Brief_EPPC_Tingley-v.-Ferguson.pdf
Staff report (April 28, 2016). EPPC Briefly: The Bathroom Battles and Transgender Ideology. https://eppc.org/news/eppc-briefly-bathroom-battles-transgender-ideology/
Resources
InfluenceWatch (influencewatch.org)
- The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC)
- influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-ethics-and-public-policy-center-eppc
- Center for the Study of Technology and Society (TECSOC)
- influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-the-study-of-technology-and-society-tecsoc
RationalWiki (rationalwiki.org)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Ethics and Public Policy Center (eppc.org)
- Amicus Briefs: Gender Ideology & Sex-Rejecting Procedures
- eppc.org/amicus-briefs/#24-gender-ideology-amp-sex-rejecting-procedures-
The Center for the Study of Technology and Society (tecsoc.org)
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