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Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine vs. transgender people

Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) is an American anti-transgender organization founded by William Malone, Zhenya Abbruzzese, and Julia Mason.

SEGM is designated as an anti-trans hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which SEGM disputes.

Background

In 2018, a group of anti-trans psychologists and doctors formed the Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Dysphoria Working Group (PAGDWG) to oppose the trans-supportive Gender Dysphoria Affirmative Working Group: “We wish to discuss the evidence for this rise in trans identified referrals and explore the evidence that social contagion may be at play, particular for those young people presenting with rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) in adolescence.” Roberto D’Angelo, future president of SEGM, was a member.

Members of PAGDWG who later attended a 2022 meeting with the US Department of Health and Human Services as SEGM representatives included D’Angelo as well as Sasha Ayad and Lisa Marchiano.

SEGM was conceived in 2019 to draft an alternative to the WPATH Standards of Care. In 2023, Elisa Shupe leaked a trove of emails describing the development of SEGM:

Michelle Cretella states that they are incubating a new group to draft “alternative standards of care,” referring to Michael Laidlaw and Will Malone. This corresponds with the creation of the Society For Evidence Based Gender Medicine, of which Will Malone helped found. The SEGM would go on to be utilized in the drafting of Florida’s alternative standards of care in 2022 banning gender affirming care for trans youth. SEGM affiliates were on the board which made that decision.

On December 14, 2019, William Malone launched a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of Stephen Beck titled, “Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities.” The description states, “We are the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), an organization raising awareness about the current treatments for gender dysphoria.” It raised over $60,000, over two-thirds of which came from three anonymous offline donors.

Their website was launched in 2020. The site compares trans healthcare for minors to “thalidomide, lobotomies, and the recent opioid epidemic.” The original front page stated their aims:

“We are asking clinicians and researchers to halt this uncontrolled experimentation on youth and replace it with a supportive framework of research that generates useful evidence about the etiology of gender dysphoria and the benefits and harms of various interventions. […] We propose that, in view of the current dearth of evidence, the application of the model to children, adolescents, and young adults is unjustified outside of research settings.”

SEGM was formally incorporated as a nonprofit in 2021 and is based in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Income reported to the IRS:

  • 2020: $199,566
  • 2021: $793,975
  • 2022: $229,683
  • 2023: $773,296

As trans journalists Erin Reed and Evan Urquhart note:

According to the Southern [Poverty] Law Center, SEGM has received significant funding from the same sources that support the partisan Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation, organizations known for drafting anti-trans legislation. SEGM is closely linked with anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ extremist groups, a connection mapped out by the SPLC’s analysis. Its founder, William Malone, was part of an anti-trans working group in 2019 where members asserted that “god’s will” is being enacted through passing trans bans. In this group, he stated, “It might take years, but we’re going to get them.” If that is not activism, what is?

SEGM’s 2023 IRS filing noted their relationship with Gordon Guyatt, Romina Brignardello-Petersen, and Chan Moruzi of McMaster University: “Commissioned five systematic reviews on the subjects of social gender transition, tucking and binding, “gender affirming” mastectomy, puberty suppression, and cross sex hormones. Paid open access fees for 8 publications to make them available to the general public, free of charge.”

One of the papers SEGM paid for open access was the retracted paper on “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” by anti-trans activists J. Michael Bailey and “Suzanna Diaz.”

People

Leadership

Advisors

Others involved:

Collaboration with McMaster University

In 2021, SEGM and McMaster University entered into an agreement in which SEGM funded several papers for use in banning gender affirming care for minors.

MacMaster collaborators:

In 2025, McMaster University released a statement about the agreement, noting they would no longer accept funding from SEGM and stating in part:

“It is profoundly misguided to cast health care based on low-certainty evidence as bad care or as care driven by ideology, and low-certainty evidence as bad science. Many of the interventions we offer are based on low certainty evidence, and enlightened individuals often legitimately and wisely choose such interventions. Thus, forbidding delivery of gender-affirming care and limiting medical management options on the basis of low certainty evidence is a clear violation of the principles of evidence-based shared decision-making and is unconscionable.”

Lead author Gordon Guyatt was immediately set upon by anti-trans activists, many of whom had previously held Guyatt up as a respected authority and cited the McMaster-SEGM collaboration.

2022 HHS meeting

On April 25, 2022 SEGM co-founder William Malone arranged a meeting with US government officials on healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth. Attendees were:

Government

  • Josh Brammer – OMB/OIRA
  • Vanessa Duguay – OMB/HD
  • Dylan de Kervor – HHS/OCR
  • Audrey Wiggins – HHS/OGC
  • Alissa Stoneking – HHS/OCR

SEGM

Self

2023 conference

In October 2023, SEGM held a conference attended by and featuring many key figures from the global anti-transgender movement, including:

2024 conference

In October 2024, SEGM met in Athens, Greece for their annual conference. Scheduled participants included:

2025 conference

SEGM announced a conference on September 11 to 14 in Berlin.

Announced speakers include:

People who acknowledged attending online include Stefanie Bode, Angelo Vincent De Boni, and Jamie Reed. German activists staged protests during the conference.

References

Staff report (September 13, 2025). Demonstration: Transfeinde stressen [Demonstration: Transphobes are stressing]. SIEGESĂ„ULE https://www.siegessaeule.de/en/events/mix/demonstration-transfeinde-stressen/2025-09-13/14:00/

ms (September 11, 2025). Kritiker und Befürworter treffen aufeinander – LSVD+ warnt vor Konferenz [Critics and supporters clash – LSVD+ warns against conference]. Schwulissimo https://schwulissimo.de/neuigkeiten/selbstbestimmungsgesetz-protestaktionen-und-konferenzen

GroĂź, Antonia (September 11, 2025). Versammlung der Transfeinde: In Berlin treffen sich US-amerikanische Propagandagruppen, die gegen die Rechte von queeren Menschen agitieren. Dagegen regt sich Protest [Gathering of transphobes: US propaganda groups agitating against queer rights are meeting in Berlin. Protests are mounting]. taz https://taz.de/Transfeindliche-Tagung/!6105449/

Staff report (September 10, 2025). „Das ist keine Wissenschaft“ – BVT* warnt vor SEGM-Konferenz, die trans*feindliche Perspektiven als objektive medizinische Fakten rahmt. [“This is not science” – BVT* warns against SEGM conference that frames anti-trans perspectives as objective medical facts]. Bundesverband Trans https://www.bundesverband-trans.de/segm-konferenz-keine-wissenschaft/

Lazine, Mira (March 7, 2025). New HHS Directive Cites Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Groups, Demands Hospitals Stop Trans Youth Care. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/new-hhs-directive-cites-anti-lgbtq

Wuest, J, (2025). Evidence and expertise in trans health law. Boston University Law Review https://www.bu.edu/bulawreview/files/2025/07/WUEST.pdf

Wuest, J., & Last, B. S. (2024). Agents of scientific uncertainty: Conflicts over evidence and expertise in gender-affirming care bans for minors. Social Science & Medicine, 344, 116533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116533

Reed, Erin (October 3, 2024). NHS Trans Care Officials Speak At Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM’s Conference. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/nhs-trans-care-officials-speak-at

Reed, Erin (June 5, 2024). SPLC Designates Genspect, SEGM As Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/splc-designates-genspect-segm-as

Reed, Erin; Urquhart, Evan (February 8, 2024). Readers Deserve Better Than Misinformation About Trans Care; A Response To Pamela Paul. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/readers-deserve-better-than-misinformation

SPLC (December 12, 2023). Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/defining-pseudoscience-network/

Reed, Erin (March 10, 2023). 2600 Leaked Anti-trans Lobbyist Emails Show Fundamentalism, Not Evidence, Is How First Anti-Trans Bills Were Drafted. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/2600-leaked-anti-trans-lobbyist-emails

Jones, Zinnia (January 11, 2023). Anti-trans group SEGM’s cofounder Stephen Beck is an executive at Bon Secours Mercy Health, the fifth-largest Catholic healthcare network in the US. Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2023/01/anti-trans-group-segms-cofounder-stephen-beck-is-an-executive-at-bon-secours-mercy-health-the-fifth-largest-catholic-healthcare-network-in-the-us/

Reed, Erin (December 20, 2022). “Gender Exploratory Therapy”: A New Anti-trans Conversion Therapy With A Misleading Name. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/gender-exploratory-therapy-a-new

Kroszner, Debra (2022). Biased Science in Texas & Alabama. Office of Public Affairs, Yale Law School https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-care/biased-science/

Boulware, Susan D; Kamody, Rebecca; Kuper, Laura; McNamara, Meredithe; Olezeski, Christy; Szilagyi, Nathalie; Alstott, Anne (2022). Biased Science in Texas & Alabama. Yale School of Medicine https://medicine.yale.edu/lgbtqi/research/gender-affirming-care/biased-science/

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) (April 25, 2022). EO 12866 Meeting 0945-AA17. Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities https://mobile.reginfo.gov/public/do/viewEO12866Meeting?viewRule=true&rin=0945-AA17&meetingId=131923&acronym=0945-HHS/OCR

Moore, Mallory (August 26, 2021) SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science. Trans Safety Network https://transsafety.network/posts/segm-uncovered/

Stahl, Aviva (April 16, 2021). Meet The “Fringe Extremists” Pushing Flawed Science To Target Trans Kids. Buzzfeed News https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/avivastahl/transgender-trans-kids-healthcare-science

Coverage in anti-trans media

Block, J. (2024). Gender medicine in the US: how the Cass review failed to land. BMJ, q1141. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1141

Selected publications by SEGM

SEGM (September 10, 2025). Our Response to the SPLC. https://segm.org/SPLC-SEGM-Response-2025

Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (October 2024). Questioning Gender: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Youth Gender Dysphoria. https://trans.so/files/SEGM24_AgendaPrint_9-16-24.pdf

SEGM (2020). About us. http://segm.org/about_us

Resources

Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)

Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (segm.org)

Guidestar (guidestar.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

GoFundMe (gofundme.com)