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G. Kevin Donovan vs. transgender people

G. Kevin Donovan is an American pediatric gastroenterologist and anti-transgender activist, Donovan submitted a report for the 2022 Florida Department of Health report used as a pretext for banning trans healthcare for minors.

In 2023, Donovan claimed in a sworn deposition not to be a member of the anti-trans hate group American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds). Leaked documents as reported by Zinnia Jones reveal Donovan was present at the ACPeds inaugural meeting in 2002 and was nominated for the ACPeds board in 2009, served on a Medicine & Morality committee with Michelle Cretella, published posts on the ACPeds blog, and paid membership dues between 2003 and 2015.

Background

Gerard Kevin Donovan, Sr. was born in May 1948. Donovan earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Notre Dame in 1970 and a medical degree from the University of Oklahoma. Donovan trained in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and served as a professor there from 1980 to 1982. Donovan completed fellowships in pediatric gastroenterology at the Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma and at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. 

Donovan later earned a master’s degree in bioethics. In 1990, Donovan was named director of the Oklahoma Bioethics Center, serving until 2012. Since 2012, Donovan has served as director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Donovan served as medical ethics consultant to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, chair of the bioethics section of the American Academy of Pediatrics and its Committee on Bioethics, as well as the Oklahoma state medical association, the Oklahoma Organ Sharing Network, the Oklahoma Genetics Advisory Council, and was founding member and first vice president of the Oklahoma Association for Healthcare Ethics.

2022 Florida healthcare ban for trans minors

Florida has long been one of the most hostile US states regarding the rights of trans and gender diverse people. Using slogans like “working together to protect our children” and “let kids be kids,” the state undertook an effort to eliminate gender affirming care for minors. Donovan was a key figure in the 2022 Florida Department of Health anti-trans report.

On April 20, 2022, the Florida Department of Health issued guidance related to gender affirming care for minors. The Secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) requested that Florida’s Medicaid program review “whether treatments are consistent with widely accepted professional medical standards.” AHCA commissioned five reports as a pretext for banning coverage of gender affirming care. The authors are:

The June 2, 2022 AHCA report found that “several services for the treatment of gender dysphoria – i.e., sex reassignment surgery, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers – are not consistent with widely accepted professional medical standards and are experimental and investigational with the potential for harmful long term affects.”

References

Mahoney, Emily L.; Ellenbogen, Romy (August 5, 2023). Florida veered from norms to strip transgender care from Medicaid, records show. Tampa Bay Times https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2023/08/02/florida-transgender-treatments-gender-dysphoria-medicaid-ron-desantis-consultants/

Jones, Zinnia (August 30, 2023). Florida AHCA’s anti-trans expert G. Kevin Donovan stated in deposition that he’s never been a member of the American College of Pediatricians hate group; the group’s financial records indicate he paid membership dues for several years. Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2023/08/florida-ahcas-anti-trans-expert-g-kevin-donovan-stated-in-deposition-that-hes-never-been-a-member-of-the-american-college-of-pediatricians-hate-group-the-groups-financial-records-indica/

Staff report (January 23, 2023). Florida runs up tab in Medicaid transgender case. CBS News Miami https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-runs-up-tab-in-medicaid-transgender-case/

Ashley, Florence (February 21, 2019). Watchful waiting doesn’t mean no puberty blockers: Anti-trans researchers misrepresent academic literature in recent article. Medium https://medium.com/@florence.ashley/watchful-waiting-doesnt-mean-no-puberty-blockers-anti-trans-researchers-misrepresent-academic-85d916f4819f

Ashley, F. (2019). Watchful Waiting Doesn’t Mean No Puberty Blockers, and Moving Beyond Watchful Waiting. The American Journal of Bioethics, 19(6), W3–W4. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2019.1599466

Hazelbaker, Jana C. (March, 22, 2023). Deposition of G. Kevin Donovan in Dekker v. Weida 4:22-CV-00325-RH-MAF https://trans.so/donovanresearch/235-3_Donovan-deposition_2023-03-22.pdf

Selected anti-trans writing by Donovan

Donovan, GK (2022). Medical Experimentation without Informed Consent: An Ethicist’s View of Transgender Treatment for Children.

Donovan, G. K., & Sotomayor, C. (2019). Strangers in a Strange Land: How Our Founding Principles and a Bitter Pill Undo the Assimilation of US Catholics. The Linacre Quarterly, 87(2), 131–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0024363919875383

Priest, M. (2019). Transgender Children and the Right to Transition: Medical Ethics When Parents Mean Well but Cause Harm. The American Journal of Bioethics, 19(2), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2018.1557276

Books

Pellegrino, Edmund D. [author]; Donovan, G. Kevin; Miller. David G.; Sotomayor, Claudia Ruiz [editors] (2025). Pellegrino’s Clinical Bioethics: A Compendium. The Catholic University of America Press, ISBN 978-0813237534

Resources

Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)

Georgetown University (georgetown.edu)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

University of Oklahoma, Tulsa (tulsa.ou.edu)

  • Oklahoma Bioethics Center
  • tulsa.ou.edu/medicine/bioethics.htm [archive]
  • ou.edu/tulsa/community_medicine/bioethics [archive]

Charlotte Lozier Institute (https://lozierinstitute.org/team-member/g-kevin-donovan/)