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Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine vs. transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed October 12, 2026 17 min read

Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) is an American anti-transgender nonprofit. SEGM is designated as an anti-trans hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which SEGM disputes.

SEGM is a key historic organization within the pseudoscience network attacking trans healthcare, particularly healthcare for young people. Notable SEGM events include:

Background

In 2018, a group of anti-trans therapists and one doctor formed the Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Dysphoria Working Group (PAGDWG): “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.”

PAGDWG members who are also affiliated with SEGM include:

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
  • 2024: $1,647,130

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.”

In 2025, SEGM began offering continuing medical education (CME) credits. Following a report by S. Baum, Washington State University cancelled plans to feature courses by SEGM.

People

Leadership

Advisors

Others involved:

Collaboration with McMaster University

In 2021, SEGM and McMaster University entered into an agreement in which SEGM funded systematic reviews to use as a pretext for restricting or banning trans healthcare 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.”

Project lead Gordon Guyatt was immediately set upon by anti-trans activists, many of whom had previously held Guyatt up as a respected authority.

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

  • Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
    • Josh Brammer – Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
    • Vanessa Duguay – OMB/HD [Health Division]
  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
    • Dylan de Kervor – Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
    • Alissa Stoneking – Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
    • Audrey Wiggins – Office of the General Counsel (OGC)

SEGM

“Self”

2023 SEGM conference

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

Anti-trans activists Jesse Singal and Benjamin Ryan noted that they attended.

2024 OPS / SEGM conference

In June 2024, Observatoire de la petite sirène [Little Mermaid Watch] (OPS) held a Congrès International [International Congress] in France titled “The Child At The Center Of Anthropological Changes: Can The Child Still Grow Up?” The event was organized in conjunction with SEGM.

Participants were

  • Caroline Eliacheff (4)
  • José Errasti
  • Senator Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio
  • Christian Flavigny
  • Karinne Gueniche
  • Claude Habib
  • Nathalie Heinich
  • Pascal Mallet
  • Céline Masson (4)
  • Michel Messu
  • Leonardo Orlando (4)
  • Georges Perla
  • Gérard Rabinovitch
  • Jasko Ramic
  • Jean-Louis Renchon
  • Jacques Robert
  • Sven Román

Groups that participated were:

  • Association pour une approche Mesurée des Questionnements de Genre – AMQG-AUFG [Swiss anti-trans group]
  • Réseau éducation, sexe et identité (RÉSI) [Canadian anti-trans group]
  • Ypomoni [French anti-trans parents group]

2024 SEGM conference

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

2025 ESCAP / SEGM conference

In the summer of 2025, the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) held their 2025 conference in Strasbourg, France. SEGM helped organize five symposia in collaboration with the ESCAP Policy Division, which had published a 2024 policy statement critical of trans healthcare for minors. The symposia were packed with prominent anti-trans activists with ties to SEGM. Maja Drobnic Radobuljac also presented a session promoting Hilary Cass and the Cass Review.

The five symposia were titled:

  • Designing research in gender dysphoria in minors
  • Lived experiences of gender dysphoria
  • Gender dysphoria in minors: Evidence for and development of treatment approaches
  • When evidence is not sufficient: The ethics of gender dysphoria management in minors
  • Cautious national developments in treatment of GD in minors

The symposia Chairs were:

Participants were:

  • “Helen” [British parent whose child reportedly “desisted” from a trans identity]
  • Anne Wæhre (2)
  • Lucian Wolf [Slovenian youth transitioner]

For more details, see the 2025 ESCAP conference page.

2025 SEGM conference

SEGM announced a conference to be held from September 11 to 14 in Berlin. Announced speakers included:

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

2026 CAN-SG / SEGM conference

In July 2026 SEGM held a conference in London in conjunction with Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG) titled “Rethinking Youth Gender Medicine.” Announced speakers included:

They also announced a “parent perspective” panel.

2026 SEGM conference

In September 2026, SEGM announced a conference to be held in Washington, DC November 5–7, 2026. Announced speakers include:

References

Baum, S. (November 7, 2025). WSU Suspends Hate Group’s Medical Courses; Coalition Says Make It Permanent. Erin In The Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/wsu-suspends-hate-groups-medical

Roland, Mitchell (November 6, 2025). WSU suspends controversial transgender continuing education courses. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/nov/06/wsu-suspends-controversial-transgender-continuing-/

Russell, John (October 31, 2025). This medical school is now allowing a hate group to provide classes. LGBTQ Nation https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/10/this-medical-school-is-now-allowing-a-hate-group-to-provide-classes/

Baum, S. (October 29, 2025). Washington State University Credentials Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM to Teach Medical Providers. Erin In The Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/washington-state-university-credentials

Lourenco, Denio (October 21, 2025). How campus activists got their university to drop an anti-trans research funder. Xtra* https://xtramagazine.com/power/activism/mcmaster-university-anti-trans-funding-277419

Carnell, Henry (September 23, 2025). Trans Health Care “Skeptics” Lost a Key Ally—Now They’re Having a Meltdown. Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/guyatt-transgender-care-youth-medicine-evidence-segm/

Gaffney, Theresa (September 22, 2025). Author of reviews of gender affirming care decries ‘egregious misuse’ of the findings to justify bans. Stat https://www.statnews.com/2025/09/22/evidence-based-medicine-gender-affirming-care-gordon-guyatt/

Staff report (September 13, 2025). Demonstration: Transfeinde stressen [Demonstration: Transphobes are stressing]. SIEGESÄULE 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

Groß, 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

Carnell, Henry (May 10, 2024). The UK’s New Study on Gender Affirming Care Misses the Mark in So Many Ways. Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/cass-review-transgender-health-care-nhs-gender-affirming-care/

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

Staff report (December 12, 2023). SPLC Report Exposes Network Behind Junk Science and Disinformation Campaign Against the LGBTQ+ Community. Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/splc-report-exposes-network-behind-junk-science-and-disinformation-campaign-against/

Cravens, R.G. et al (December 12, 2023). Group dynamics and division of labor within the anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience network. Southern Poverty Law Center / CAPTAIN 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

Caraballo, Alejandra (March 8, 2023). The Anti-Transgender Medical Expert Industry. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-medicine-and-ethics/article/antitransgender-medical-expert-industry/25EFFECB8F71CA9A37F9F089E13BC41E

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

Malone, William (February 2, 2026). Activists Are Suppressing Research Into Gender-Affirming Care. It Has To Stop. All Otsego https://www.allotsego.com/the-partial-observer-activists-are-suppressing-research-into-gender-affirming-care-it-has-to-stop/

Abbruzzese, Zhenya, Li, Erica (February 11, 2026). The Evidence Challenging Gender-Affirming Care for Youth Is Clear. RealClearHealth https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2026/02/11/the_evidence_challenging_gender-affirming_care_for_youth_is_clear_1164129.html

Peters, Jeremy W. (March 16, 2026). In Tense Meeting, Mehmet Oz Pressed Medical Societies on Trans Care for Teens. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/us/politics/dr-oz-transgender-meeting.html

Cunningham, Paige Winfield; Ovalle, David (November 20, 2025). Authors of HHS report blasting youth gender care revealed. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/11/20/hhs-transgender-youth-gender-care-report/

Editorial Board (November 19, 2025). Opinion | What we still don’t know about pediatric medical transition. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/19/transgender-pediatric-medical-transition-hhs-report/

Ryan, Benjamin (November 19, 2025). Unmasked At Last: The 9 Authors of the Trump Administration Report On Pediatric Gender Medicine. So Who Are They? Hazard Ratio https://benryan.substack.com/p/unmasked-at-last-the-9-authors-of

Davis, Lisa Selin (November 19, 2025). A chance to depoliticize gender-affirming care. Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/19/opinion/gender-affirming-care-report-trump-hhs/

Oliveira, Alex (November 19, 2025). Scientists okay Trump-ordered report that found almost nothing to support ‘gender-affirming care’ for kids. New York Post https://nypost.com/2025/11/19/us-news/trump-ordered-report-that-found-almost-no-evidence-to-support-gender-affirming-care-for-kids-gets-scientific-seal-of-approval/

Eappen, Roy (November 18, 2025). Transgender activists successfully bullied the father of evidence-based medicine: Roy Eappen in Without Diminishment. Macdonald-Laurier Institute https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/transgender-activists-successfully-bullied-the-father-of-evidence-based-medicine-roy-eappen-in-without-diminishment/

Ryan, Benjamin (November 4, 2025). Fact Checking Erin Reed’s Faith in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Map. Hazard Ratio https://benryan.substack.com/p/fact-checking-erin-reeds-piece-about

Gorin, M., Smids, J., & Lantos, J. (2025). Toward Evidence-Based and Ethical Pediatric Gender Medicine. JAMA, 333(10), 841. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2024.28203

Hamm, Amy (August 24, 2025). Amy Hamm: Father of ‘evidence-based medicine’ turns his back on science. National Post https://nationalpost.com/opinion/father-of-evidence-based-medicine-turns-his-back-on-science

Ryan, Benjamin (Sep 04, 2025). How Gordon Guyatt’s ‘Values and Preferences’ Triggered His Fall From Grace. Hazard Ratio https://benryan.substack.com/p/how-gordon-guyatts-values-and-preferences

Abbruzzese, Evgenia; Byrne, Alex; Curlin, Farr; Gorin, Moti; Kaliebe, Kristopher; Laidlaw, Michael K.; McDeavitt, Kathleen; Sapir, Leor; Zhang, Yuan (December 8, 2025). We wrote the HHS review on treatment for minors with gender dysphoria. We hope our critics actually read our report. Stat https://www.statnews.com/2025/12/08/hhs-gender-dysphoria-minors-report-authors/

Figliolia, Joseph (August 29 2025). McMaster University Fails the Bioethics Test. City Journal https://www.city-journal.org/article/mcmaster-university-gender-medicine-research

Miceli, Kurt [Do No Harm] (2025). A One-Sided Approach to Care for Transgender Youth. Psychiatric News, 60(6). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2025.06.6.22.d

Washburn, Emily (July 2, 2025). New Paper Details ‘Emerging and Accumulating’ Adverse Effects of ‘Gender Affirming’ Estrogen. Focus on the Family / Daily Citizen https://dailycitizen.focusonthefamily.com/paper-emerging-accumulate-adverse-effects-gender-affirming-estrogen/

“Cohn, J.”; McDeavitt, Kathleen (June 30, 2025). Debating the Evidence for Gender-Affirming Care. Psychiatric News, 60(7). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2025.07.7.23.a

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

Block, Jennifer (August 14, 2023). US paediatric leaders back gender affirming approach while also ordering evidence review. BMJ, p1877. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p1877

Selected publications by SEGM

Wæhre, Anne; Zepf, Florian Daniel; Feichtinger, Martin; Bjerkeli, Mikael Scott; Kaltiala, Riittakerttu (December 15, 2025). Global Perspectives on Youth Gender Distress: SEGM 2025 Conference Report. IACAPAP Bulletin https://www.iacapap.org/news/global-perspectives-on-youth-gender-distress-segm-2025-conference-report.html PDF: Issue 80 https://www.iacapap.org/_Resources/Persistent/472e98c4365fbc9f19a9785152a11f97099a2597/Dec%202025%20IACAPAP%20Bulletin_15.12.25.pdf

Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine  (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

GC Watch UK (antirights.com)

  • SEGM
  • antirights.com/org.html?org=segm

Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)

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

Guidestar (guidestar.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

GoFundMe (gofundme.com)

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