Johanna Olson-Kennedy, an influential advocate of so-called sex-change interventions for minors, withheld data from a landmark study that did not show positive effects of puberty blockers out of fear that conservatives would use the data to oppose transgenderism.
Olson-Kennedy, who runs the “Center for Transyouth Health and Development” at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, received funds from the National Institutes of Health nearly one decade ago to examine health outcomes for ninety-five children who underwent puberty blockers. When asked in an interview for The New York Times why she has not yet released the results from the study, Olson-Kennedy commented that she did not “want our work to be weaponized.”
She added that she did not want the results to be used in court to argue against puberty blockers. At least twenty-three states have now passed prohibitions on transgender surgeries and hormones for minors, while other states have increased legal protections for the practices.
Amy Tishelman, a psychologist at Boston College who was an original researcher for the study, meanwhile told The New York Times that the results should be released. “I understand the fear about it being weaponized, but it’s really important to get the science out there,” she said.
The withholding of the data comes after a new analysis from Do No Harm, an association of medical professionals combating leftist activism in healthcare, revealed that at least 5,700 minors have been subjected to so-called sex-change operations between 2019 and 2023.
Beyond those subjected to so-called sex-change surgeries, such as genital reconstructions or mastectomies, another 8,600 children received hormones or puberty blockers, while almost 62,700 prescriptions related to so-called sex-change procedures were written for minors.
Many critics of transgender surgeries note the irreversible physical harm they render and the biological impossibility of changing individual sex. The procedures create other medical issues that decrease life expectancy and result in patients becoming dependent on future treatments.
