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Gordon Guyatt vs. transgender people

Gordon Guyatt is a Canadian researcher and anti-transgender activist.

Guyatt was an invited speaker at a 2023 anti-trans conference organized by anti-transgender hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

Guyatt was recruited to support anti-trans FUD propaganda that claims trans healthcare is based on “low quality evidence.” Anti-trans activists who promoted this claim include Azeen Ghorayshi, Helen Lewis, Jennifer Block, Sharon Kirkey, Price St. Clair, Bernard Lane, editors of The Economist, Jesse Singal, Paul Hruz, Michael Laidlaw, James Cantor, and Leor Sapir.

Guyatt’s scale was rejected in a 2023 federal ruling about trans healthcare, because 85% of evidence that guides clinical care, across all areas of medicine, would be classified as “low-quality” under Guyatt’s scale.

Background

Gordon Henry Guyatt was born on November 11, 1953 in Hamilton, Ontario.

Guyatt earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a medical degree from McMaster University, followed by a master’s degree there.

Guyatt and spouse Maureen Meade have three children.

“Low-quality evidence”

In sharing a report by anti-trans activist Jennifer Block, Guyatt stated “Current American guidelines for managing gender dysphoria in adolescents untrustworthy.”

Christina Jewett and Megan Twohey also parroted the “low-quality evidence” claim put forth by anti-trans activists, based on Guyatt’s scale. Federal judge Sarah E. Geraghty rejected these claims in a 2023 Georgia case where anti-trans activists Paul Hruz, Michael Laidlaw, and James Cantor testified against Yale University professor of pediatrics Meredithe McNamara:

The undisputed record shows that clinical medical decision-making, including in pediatric or adolescent medicine, often is not guided by evidence that would qualify as “high quality” on the scales used by Defendants’ experts. 30 (Doc. 70-1, McNamara Decl. ¶¶ 23–28; Tr. 74:11–75:1 (McNamara Testimony); Tr. 133:614 (Hruz Testimony).) In fact, the record shows that less than 15 percent of medical treatments are supported by “high-quality evidence,” or in other words that 85 percent of evidence that guides clinical care, across all areas of medicine, would be classified as “low-quality” under the scale used by Defendants’ experts. (Doc. 70-1, McNamara Decl. ¶ 25; Tr. 74:11–75:1.) Defendants do not refute Dr. McNamara’s testimony on this point, and indeed they “concede” that “low-quality” evidence “can be considered.” 31

Geraghty (2023) [emphasis mine]

Geraghty also noted the obvious biases of Hruz, Laidlaw and Cantor:

Defendants’ experts’ insistence on a very high threshold of evidence in the context of claims about hormone therapy’s safety and benefits, and on the other hand their tolerance of a much lower threshold of evidence for claims about its risks, the likelihood of desistance and/or regret, and their notions about the ideological bias of a medical establishment that largely disagrees with them. That is cause for some concern about the weight to be assigned to their views, although the Court does not doubt that those they express are genuinely held.

(“Dr. [Paul] Hruz fended and parried questions and generally testified as a deeply biased advocate, not as an expert sharing relevant evidence-based information and opinions. I do not credit his testimony.”); Eknes-Tucker v. Marshall, 603 F. Supp. 3d 1131, 1142–43 (M.D. Ala. 2022) (explaining that the court gave Dr. James Cantor’s “testimony regarding the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors very little weight”); C. P. by & through Pritchard v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, No. 3:20-CV-06145-RJB, 2022 WL 17092846, at *4 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 21, 2022) (noting that it was a “close question” as to whether Dr. Michael Laidlaw was qualified to testify about the medical necessity of gender-affirming care because he has treated only two patients with gender dysphoria and has done no original research on gender identity).

Geraghty (2023)

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

McMaster University (https://hei.healthsci.mcmaster.ca/)

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