"The greatest danger to young people, I would argue, is not the questions we ask—but the assumption that we already have the answers."

Listen to these opening remarks of the SEGM conference by Roberto D'Angelo

There’s a story I’m trying to tell. It’s about how the left (a term I use to include liberals and Democrats) fell under the spell of a very strange belief system: that some children are born in the wrong body. That gender identity is fixed, while the body is malleable.

That belief was institutionalized in law, education, medicine, journalism, and psychology, and fed to a generation immersed in social media, who were taught to think that any objection was heresy. Thus, any group or person who objected was labeled a bigot.

That’s how the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine received the designation of hate group by the SPLC. Though I have of course not chronicled every word ever said by SEGM’s associates, or speakers at its conference, I have interacted personally and professionally with many involved in SEGM. I have yet to hear anything hateful. Instead, I’ve heard, and learned, a lot about evidence-based medicine, and about science. It doesn’t mean I believe everything they say. It means I don’t believe they are a hate group.

When I heard this opening speech by SEGM’s president, Dr. Roberto D’Angelo, from their recent conference, I was struck by its compassion and humility. If someone in your life believes this group is hateful, or that all those objecting to or questioning gender-affirming care are bigots, I urge you to have them listen. I have no affiliation with this group, no fealty to them. I simply believe in this message.