Do No Harm is an American anti-transgender nonprofit that claims it is “protecting minors from gender ideology.”
Background
Do No Harm was launched in 2022 to oppose diversity initiatives in medicine.
Founder Stanley Goldfarb is a retired doctor who wrote the 2022 book Take Two Aspirin and Call Me By My Pronouns: Why Turning Doctors into Social Justice Warriors is Destroying American Medicine.
Do No Harm was initially funded in 2022 by Joseph Edelman and Susan Lebovitz-Edelman via their Edelman Family Foundation:
The contribution to Do No Harm is one of the Edelmans’ single largest donations. It is also roughly the same amount of money that Do No Harm projected as revenue for 2022, suggesting the Edelmans were the group’s primary funders in its initial year. In a note describing the donation on its tax filings, the foundation said it was “to provide support to protect healthcare from a radical, divisive and discriminatory ideology.”
Redden (2023)
Anti-trans activism
Do No Harm has evolved into an anti-trans organization, producing model legislation used in several states seeking to ban gender-affirming care for trans and gender diverse youth.
Via the Associated Press:
The AP obtained the texts of more than 130 bills in 40 state legislatures from Plural, a public policy software company, and analyzed them for similarities to model bills peddled by the conservative groups Do No Harm, which also criticizes efforts to diversify staffing in medicine, and the Family Research Council, which has long been involved in abortion restrictions.
One of the clearest examples is in Montana, where nearly all the language in at least one bill can be found in Do No Harm’s model.
McMilan (2023)
Key people
Founding funders
- Joseph Edelman
- Susan Lebovitz-Edelman
- Edelman Family Foundation
Staff
- Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Board Chair
- Kristina Rasmussen, Executive Director
- Ari DeWolf, Director of Outreach
- Ian Kingsbury, Director of Research
- Laura Morgan, Program Manager
- Mary Miller, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships
Senior Fellows
- Benita Cotton-Orr
- Mark Perry
- Jay Greene
- Dr. Daniel Weiss
- Dr. Miriam Grossman
- Dr. Roy Eappen
- Dr. Victoria Schneider
- Raheem Williams
Visiting Fellows
- Dr. Rick Bosshardt
- Dr. Marilyn Singleton
Patient advocates
References
Redden, Molly (October 26, 2023). This Billionaire Hedge Funder Is Quietly Financing Anti-Trans Advocacy Across The U.S. HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joseph-edelman-political-donor-transgender_n_653a8605e4b0783c4ba04deb
McMillan, Jeff; Kruesi, Kimberlee (May 20, 2023). Meet the influential new player on transgender health bills. AP News https://apnews.com/article/transgender-bills-lobbying-do-no-harm-94f56059d24608d724eb78fefecf4e09
McMillan, Jeff; Harjai, Kavish; Kruesi, Kimberlee (May 20, 2023). Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups, AP finds. AP News https://apnews.com/article/transgender-health-model-legislation-5cc4a7cb4ab69150f670d06fd0f361ab
Resources
Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)
- Do No Harm
- transdatalibrary.org/organization/do-no-harm
Do No Harm (donoharmmedicine.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)