Harvard doctors sue over Trump removal of articles mentioning LGBTQ health issues
The doctors' lawsuit argues that the Trump administration violated the US Constitution's First Amendment by imposing a viewpoint-based restriction on the doctors' participation in a government-provided forum open to private speakers
Doctors from Harvard Medical School have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's removal of articles about their research from a government-run website focused on patient safety because they referenced people in the LGBTQ communities.
Represented by lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, Drs. Celeste Royce and Gordon Schiff filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in Boston federal court alleging their articles were removed as a result of an executive order President Donald Trump signed requiring agencies to remove statements promoting "gender ideology."
Their articles were published on the Patient Safety Network, a website that features news and resources on patient safety. It is run by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
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The doctors' lawsuit argues that the Trump administration violated the US Constitution's First Amendment by imposing a viewpoint-based restriction on the doctors' participation in a government-provided forum open to private speakers.
The lawsuit also argues the administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act by removing articles without a reasoned basis.
"Censoring information about transgender people or anyone a politician does not like, who have documented increased risks of negative health outcomes, is antithetical to the very mission of public health," Schiff said in a statement.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump signed the executive order on his first day back in the White House on January 20, forcing the government to "recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male."
The US Office of Personnel Management a week later issued guidance directing agencies to scrub mentions of "gender ideology" from websites, social media accounts and other outward facing media.
The two doctors' articles were soon after removed from PSNet.
One article, co-authored by Royce, focused on endometriosis, a disease that causes tissue similar to the uterus lining to grow outside it and included a sentence about diagnosis in transgender and gender-nonconforming people, the lawsuit said.
Another article, titled "Multiple Missed Opportunities for Suicide Risk Assessment in Emergency and Primary Care Settings," was co-authored by Schiff and included a sentence concerning heightened suicide risk in LGBTQ communities.
A similar lawsuit by the medical advocacy group Doctors for America resulted in a federal judge in Washington on February 11 issuing a temporary restraining order forcing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration to restore websites removed due to Trump's order.
The case is Schiff, et al, v. US Office of Personnel Management, et al, US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 25-cv-10595.
For the plaintiffs: Jessie Rossman of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Scarlet Kim of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and Ben Menke of Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School.
