American College of Pediatricians

The Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) as an anti-LGBTQ hate group. ACP was founded in 2002 when a few people among the 60,000-plus members of the respected mainstream American Academy of Pediatrics broke away to protest a policy supporting adoption by same-sex couples. ACP has issued policies and statements targeting LGBTQ people and youth, including:

—For nearly a decade colluded with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to shore up the ADF’s anti-transgender policy efforts and legal arguments with junk science. The ACP uses anti-LGBTQ junk science to back up many of its discriminatory talking points and to provide medical justification for interpreting Title IX to exclude gender-identity protections. Because the ADF lacked scientific evidence to back up its claims that nondiscrimination protections put children at risk, the organization ordered custom white papers from ACP. The coordination also extended to ADF drafting legislation for many states to ban transgender healthcare; ACP members were recruited to testify in support of those bans in GA, AL, KY and OH. Despite testifying before state legislatures in support of the bills, ACP’s “experts” have been discredited as not qualified to be experts in court, including Dr. Quentin van Meter and Dr. Paul Hruz.

—False claims about evidence-based gender-affirming care to support Texas authorities targeting families of transgender children. Every major medical association supports gender-affirming care as safe and lifesaving.

—Sued the Department of Health and Human Services with anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom objecting to gender-affirming care for any patient including children.

—False claims about LGBTQ people’s mental health and fitness as parents, claims debunked by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association.

—Support for the discredited and dangerous practice of “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth, now banned in 20 states

—Filing amicus briefs against LGBTQ youth access to sports and a brief baselessly and falsely claiming the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision in Obergefell v. Hodges posed “an immediate threat” to the “stability of families” and “safety of children.” At least 300,000 couples have married since Obergefell with no evidence of negative effect on families or children.

—Vile rhetoric falsely linking LGBTQ people to pedophilia and “grooming”

—False and baseless claims that “transgenderism” (sic) “increasingly looks like a cultish religion”

—False and harmful rhetoric about drag queen story hour, where performers read to children about accepting their and others’ differences, as “trans activists eager to groom the next generation of victims,” vile and false rhetoric repeated by extremist groups and hate groups including Proud Boys, who have stormed story hours, threatening performers and terrifying children.

—Issued a press release urging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade: “The American College of Pediatricians believes that human life begins at fertilization and we stand for the sanctity and dignity of all members of the human family, including preborn babies,” claims in conflict with ACP’s support for ineffective “conversion therapy,” and false claims about LGBTQ people being pedophiles.

—Accused of distorting scientific research, leading the Director of the National Institutes of Health to issue a statement: “The American College of Pediatricians pulled language out of context from a book I wrote in 2006 to support an ideology that can cause unnecessary anguish and encourage prejudice. The information they present is misleading and incorrect, and it is particularly troubling that they are distributing it in a way that will confuse school children and their parents.”