Utah Governor Justifies Bans on Trans Healthcare Echoing Conspiracy Claims
Governor Spencer Cox claimed the AMA, APA, and AAP are “all very political groups” the Republican governor falsely claimed.
by Evan Urquhart
Century-old pillars of the American medical establishment such as the American Medical Association (founded in 1847) and the American Psychiatric Association (founded in 1844) are “very political groups” according to Utah’s Republican Governor, Spencer Cox. In an interview for ABC last weekend, Cox sought to position himself as a moderate while echoing conspiracy-tinged claims of anti-trans activists. These groups have claimed a shadowy group of elites control medicine, a position which conveniently allows them to discount the extensive medical evidence that doesn’t fit their ideological lens.
In an interview with Margaret Brennan for Face the Nation on Sunday, Cox claimed that the US medical establishment has been politicized while Europe “doesn’t have the same culture war battles”. This false claim has been put forward by ideologues opposed to youth transition, and has been exposed as disinformation by reporting in Assigned and elsewhere. In the interview, Cox used these claims of politicization in the US medical establishment to dismiss medical evidence that gender affirming care is safe and beneficial for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Instead of of leaning on US sources of medical information he claimed to have been “looking elsewhere and looking at scientists elsewhere” seemingly tii indicate a willingness to keep looking until he finds scientists who tell him what he wants to hear. In this, Cox is not alone, as Republican’s committment to deciding they don’t support gender-affirming care first, then directing conservative doctors to come up with some sort of scientific-sounding rationale for that afterwards, is well-documented at this point.
screenshot from CBS News
At a couple points, Cox seemed to be under the misaprehension that gender-affirming care rests on a single Dutch study, not on two decades of evidence from doctors all over the world. His focus on Europe and confusion about the medical evidence suggest a possible source for his talking points: the Atlantic, specifically this piece, which focused on the early history of treatment for gender dysphoric youth in the Netherlands and on a misleading portrayal of the highly politicized debates around gender-affirming care in Europe to undermine the more recent evidence and mainstream medical consensus, which supports gender-affirming care.
Cox claims that it’s impossible to have a discussion about why gender-affirming care has increased in the US, but his actions demonstrate an unwillingness to engage with any authority, any source of evidence, that runs contrary to right-wing narratives. He marshalls a combination of the santized anti-trans talking points promoted by specific mainstream US outlets withjust a touch of the conspiratorial thinking from the US far-right. By appearing serious and measured and claiming the authority of foreign countries whose actual policies and politics are not widely understood in the US, Cox demonstrates a mastery of the playbook used by those who are determined to back all the policies of extreme anti-trans groups without taking on all the baggage those groups represent.