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Leslie MacMillan vs. transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed October 20, 2026 5 min read

Leslie MacMillan is a Canadian physician and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Leslie Garth MacMillan earned a medical degree from University of Toronto in 1978. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certified MacMillan in internal medicine in 1982 and in medical microbiology in 1984. MacMilan’s Ontario registration moved to the independent practice class in 1985.

MacMillan was a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and was listed as emeritus as of June 2017.

Anti-trans activism

MacMillan is a contributor and frequent commenter on the blog Why Evolution Is True by anti-trans activist Jerry Coyne. In 2023 comments on a blog post, MacMillan described a McGill University student protest that shut down an event featuring anti-trans activist Robert Wintemute, calling it a “disgraceful incident.” MacMillan also complained about protest coverage by Canada’s public broadcaster, the CBC:

“Many topics simply cannot be broached except deferentially. Trans “rights” can only be asserted and reported as self-evident facts, and there is the hate-speech law back in the shadows into which everyone is looking over his shoulder.”

MacMillan has made comments on anti-trans coverage in American Conservative, City Journal, and The College Fix.

MacMillan has made a number of anti-trans comments on the blog Healthy Debate. In 2024, a group of University of British Columbia medical students published a piece arguing that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s proposed restrictions on affirmative models of care and school pronoun policies for trans youth contradict medical evidence and professional guidelines. Anti-trans activists including Michelle Zacchigna, Roy Eappen, and MacMIllan left several comments. MacMillan stated:

“When I was in med school it took all my time just learning endocrinology (as a small component of the million other things I had to learn in order just to be safe, not even expert), not telling doctors how to practise it or telling politicians how to legislate about it. These kids must be exceedingly brilliant to be so sure of themselves and their “overwhelming” duty.

The profession of medicine has to earn its privilege of self-regulation, which means having a visible, credible commitment to enforcing professional standards based on ever-accumulating scientific evidence, not a quasi-religious ideology. When the doctors fail to regulate themselves in the public interest and get caught up in a censorious groupthink that may harm patients or the public, the government has every right and responsibility to step in and impose regulation on them. This is what Alberta and a couple of dozen U.S. states have wisely decided to do. Bravo to them.

We repudiate the claims made by these misguided virtue-signaling UBC medical students at a very early stage in their medical education and training. I hope they come to understand just how much they don’t know about medicine before they enter internships and residencies. They are altogether too sure of themselves now.”

MacMillan also replied to too other comments:

“Did you even read the articles that claim benefit from this treatment? Or are you just quoting talking points? They are full of holes. The more recent studies with better design and longer follow-up (refernced in these comments) show no such thing.”

“Gender-affirming care is not about leaving kids alone who are confused about their sex and letting them exist in their world. It is making an active decision to irreversibly medicalize them with drugs and surgery that have no proven value for a condition that exists only in someone’s mind. It is this irresponsible medical care that the Alberta government proposes to rein in.”

In May 2025. MacMillan was a signatory on an open letter solicited and published by anti-trans think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute. It argues that groups like the Canadian Medical Association and Canadian Paediatric Society, along with legacy media, have misled the public into thinking gender-affirming medical treatments for minors is safe, effective and universally endorsed by doctors. They cite the UK’s Cass Review and restrictions in Europe and Alberta to claim that treatments are unproven and can cause permanent harms, and that minors should not be allowed to have them. Other anti-trans signatories include Lori Regenstreif and Roy Eappen.

In July 2025, MacMillan was a signatory on a formal complaint about a Globe and Mail article by Danielle Groen, which reported on the Canadian Medical Association’s legal challenge to Alberta’s Bill 26 banning medical transition options for young people. That complaint was written by anti-trans extremist Mia Hughes and published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. It was also signed by other prominent anti-trans activists, including:

In 2026, MacMillan commented on a Healthy Debate post by physician Laura Targownik about Alberta’s restrictions on gender based medical care for trans youth:

“Suppose a person expressing gender confusion, while receiving permitted exploratory psychotherapy, spontaneously desisted and came to be reconciled with his sex ‘assigned’ at birth. (After all, every person who thinks he was born in the wrong body must eventually come to terms that this is the only body he will ever have. It has to be the right one.) His disappointed enablers, advocates, and one of two estranged parents fighting with the other over their child’s ‘true’ identity might pressure him to make a complaint to the police that he had been ‘converted’ by the therapist. Fears of getting involved with this are well-founded, at least for any therapist who is not keen to affirm everyone.”

References

Selected writing by MacMillan

MacMillan, Leslie G. (January 25, 2026). Rapid response to Waters, Adele (January 21, 2026). Puberty blockers: Growing calls to pause controversial trial from medics, lawyers, and public. The BMJ https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s134 https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s134/rr-0

MacMillan, Leslie (January 22, 2026). Comment on Targownik, Laura (January 21, 2026). Alberta has restricted access to gender based medical care for trans youth. Will the rest of Canada soon follow? Healthy Debate https://healthydebate.ca/2026/01/topic/alberta-gender-based-medical-care/

Hughes, Mia; MacMillan, Leslie; other signatories (July 8, 2025). ‘Far too serious for such uninformed, careless journalism’: MLI’s Mia Hughes pens formal complaint challenging Globe article on gender medicine. Macdonald-Laurier Institute https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/far-too-serious-for-such-uninformed-careless-journalism-mlis-mia-hughes-pens-formal-complaint-challenging-globe-article-on-gender-medicine/

Schwartz, L., “Lal, M.,” “Cohn, J.,” Mendoza, C. D., MacMillan, L. (June 12, 2025). Emerging and accumulating safety signals for the use of estrogen among transgender women. Discover Mental Health, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44192-025-00216-3

MacMillan, Leslie; other signatories (May 14, 2025). Medical organizations and media let Canadians believe gender medicine is safe and universally accepted. It’s not: 14 physicians author statement for Inside Policy. Macdonald-Laurier Institute https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/medical-organizations-and-media-let-canadians-believe-gender-medicine-is-safe-and-universally-accepted-its-not-14-physicians-sign-statement-for-inside-policy/

MacMillan, Leslie (March 21, 2024). Comments on Grover, Sanya; Gill, Vivek; Moxham, Lindy; Stoochnoff, Kira; Lee-Pii, Kiera; Sidi, Sophia; Hu, Elaine (March 19, 2024). Prescribing compassion: Standing up against transphobic policies in Alberta. Healthy Debate https://healthydebate.ca/2024/03/topic/standing-against-transphobic-policies-alberta/

MacMillan, Leslie (January 2, 2022). Guest post: Censorship at a Canadian Medical Journal. Why Evolution Is True https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2022/01/02/guest-post-censorship-at-the-canadian-medical-journal/

Resources

University Health Network (uhn.ca)

College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (cpso.on.ca)

Disqus (disqus.com)

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