American College of Pediatricians vs. transgender people

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) is a socially conservative organization of activist pediatricians. They are designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Members have consistently taken a stand against gender affirming models of care for trans and gender diverse youth. With only about 700 members, ACPeds are a conservative fringe group within pediatrics, only about 1% of the size of mainstream organization American Academy of Pediatrics. With about 67,000 members, the American Academy of Pediatrics remains supportive of gender affirming care for youth.

ACPeds is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) is a fringe anti-LGBTQ hate group that masquerades as the premier U.S. association of pediatricians to push anti-LGBTQ junk science, primarily via far-right conservative media and filing amicus briefs in cases related to gay adoption and marriage equality.
SPLC (2023)

LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization GLAAD notes that the group:

opposes same-sex marriage
opposes same-sex adoption
opposes abortion
opposes gender-affirming care for youth
opposes LGBTQ youth access to sports
opposes drag queen story hours
supports non-affirming models of care for gender diverse youth, including conversion therapy
claims “transgenderism is a belief system that increasingly looks like a cultish religion”
claims LGBTQ activists “have pedophilia intrinsically woven into their agenda”

In 2023 ACPeds launched an anti-trans website called Biological Integrity. The site has misleading information about trans healthcare.

Key people

Michelle Cretella
Quentin Van Meter

Board

Michael Artigues
Jane Anderson
Tom Benton
Christina Chan
Scott S. Field
Salwa Gendi
Russell Gombosi
Mark Grubb
Patricia Lee June
J. Wells Logan
Renata Moon
David Olson
L. David Perry
Robin Pierucci
Richard Sandler
Jill Simons
Ron Smith .
William Stigall
Den A. Trumbull
Kimberly A. Vacca
Leah Willson
Nick Yates

2018 letter to Trump Administration

In 2018, a consortium of anti-transgender activists associated with ACPeds petitioned the Trump Administration with the goal of “upholding the scientific definition of sex in law and policy,” adding “an individual who identifies as transgender remains either a biological male or female.”

Signatories

Michelle Cretella, M.D. Executive Director, American College of Pediatricians
Donna Harrison, M.D. Executive Director, American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists
David Stevens, M.D. CEO, Christian Medical and Dental Associations
Peter Morrow, M.D. President, Catholic Medical Association
Stephen M. Krason, Ph.D. President, Society of Catholic Social Scientists
Paul McHugh, M.D. University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Michael K. Laidlaw, M.D. Endocrinologist and member of gdworkinggroup.org
Craig Stump M.D., Ph.D., FACE Endocrinologist, University of Arizona College of Medicine
Paul W. Hruz M.D., Ph.D. Pediatric Endocrinologist, Physician-Scientist, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Professor of Cellular Biology & Physiology
Angela Lanfranchi M.D. FACS Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Susan J. Bradley, M.D., FRCP(C) Professor Emerita, University of Toronto
J. Michael Bailey, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology Northwestern University
Marie T. Hilliard, MS, MA, JCL, Ph.D., RN The National Catholic Bioethics Center Mary Lou Singleton, MSN, FPC-BC
Christopher Doyle, LPC Co-Founder National Task Force for Therapy Equality
David Pickup, LMFT Co-Founder National Task Force for Therapy Equality
Laura Haynes, Ph.D., California Licensed Psychologist USA Representative, International Federation for Therapeutic and Counseling Choice (IFTCC.org)
Michael Farris, J.D. President, CEO, & General Counsel Alliance Defending Freedom
Matthew D. Staver, Esq. Founder and President, Liberty Council
Charles LiMandri, J.D. Founder and President, Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund
Robert J. Muise, Esq. Co-Founder, American Freedom Law Center
Gerard V. Bradley, J.D. Professor of Law University of Notre Dame
Steven D. Smith, J.D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law University of San Diego
Maimon Schwarzschild, J.D. Professor of Law University of San Diego
Larry Alexander, LL.B. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law University of San Diego
Tony Perkins President Family Research Council
Frank Cannon President American Principles Project
Matthew J. Franck, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, Witherspoon Institute
Sharon Slater President, Family Watch International Austin Ruse President, Center for Family and Human Rights
Allan C. Carlson, Ph.D., Editor, The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy
Patrick Lee, Ph.D. McAleer Professor of Bioethics Center for Bioethics, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Christopher Wolfe, Ph.D. Distinguished Affiliate Professor, University of Dallas President, American Public Philosophy Institute
Rev. D. Paul Sullins, Ph.D. Research Professor of Sociology and Director, Leo Institute for Catholic Social Research, The Catholic University of America
Robert G Kennedy, Ph.D. Department of Catholic Studies University of St. Thomas
Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. Founder and President, The Ruth Institute

Cited works by

Colin Wright
Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul McHugh
Jiska Ristori and Thomas D. Steensma
Cecilia Dhejne, Paul Lichtenstein, Marcus Boman, Anna L. V. Johansson, Niklas Långström, Mikael Landén
Alliance Defending Freedom

2023 data leak

ACPeds inadvertently shared links to an unsecured Google Drive that contained 10,000 files, including membership information, financial data, and strategy. As of spring 2022, the College counted slightly more than 700 active members. An internal database listed 1,200 past and current members. Via WIRED:

Many of the College’s most radical views target transgender people, and in particular, transgender youth. The leak, which had been indexed by Google, includes volumes of literature crafted specifically to influence relationships between practicing pediatricians, parents, and their children. It includes reams of marketing material the College aims to distribute widely among public school officials.

References

Cameron, Dell; Mehrotra, Dhruv (May 2, 2023). An Anti-Trans Doctor Group Leaked 10,000 Confidential Files. WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/american-college-pediatricians-google-drive-leak/

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

Cretella M et al. (December 4, 2018). [Letter to Matthew Whitaker, Alex Azar, and Betsy DeVos.] https://acpeds.org/assets/imported/12.4.18-Final_Revised_-12.4.18-Joint-letter-to-HHS-DOJ-DOE-Uphold-Definition-of-Sex.pdf

Cretella, Michelle (2018). Gender Dysphoria in Children. ACPeds https://acpeds.org/position-statements/gender-dysphoria-in-children