Hate Group Affiliated Academics Face Outcry at Medical Conference
Leading Off: Pediatric Academic Societies platforms anti-trans academics connected with SEGM at an event panel and are met with protests. Our top headline as we start off the week.
image from Protect Trans Futures’ Instagram
by Valorie Van-Dieman
Yesterday, on April 26th in Boston, the activist coalition Protect Trans Futures gathered at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center to protest the Pediatric Academic Societies’ 2026 Meeting, a four day convention for medical professionals. The PAS had scheduled a panel on gender affirming care that left out any experts in trans care, instead platforming prominent anti-trans academics, all of whom are known to have ties with the SPLC-designated hate group SEGM.
Gathering outside as attendees arrived for the third day of the convention, PTF members canvassed the event, handing out fliers to the numerous medical professionals as they entered. “Many people didn't know about the panel and were surprised and appalled when I told them,” said one PTF picketer in a conversation with Assigned Media. Of the attendees who did know of the panel, many disapproved, with several saying that “they planned on attending to walk out or express disapproval.”
For those that knew in advance, it was likely due to PTF’s own efforts. The group had organized a letter-writing campaign directed at the organizers of the event, urging them to cancel the panel. Despite nearly 90,000 letters being sent, PAS went forward.
Inside the building, numerous doctors attending the conference stood in front of the room where the panel was being held, waving trans flags in support of the picket outside. The panel itself was sparsely attended and met with several disruptions, which were captured on video and leaked by anti-trans activist Jamie Reed, who was in attendance (Reed received a ban from future PAS events for violating the event’s strict policy against recordings). The videos were posted to Twitter by anti-trans writer Ben Ryan.
One attendee, a PTF member who was granted access to the event, stood up and shouted at the panelists, calling out SEGM as a hate group. The protester’s words were met with applause from the audience before they were forcibly removed by security.
“This highlights the lengths that Moti Gorin and SEGM are willing to go to hide from actual evidence based science and silence the voices of trans patients,” the PTF protester who had been removed by security said, speaking with Assigned Media after the event, “There should be nothing about us without us.”
After the protester’s removal from the panel, another attendee, Kale Edmiston, a transmasc neuroscientist, stood to argue with the panelists. He objected to the politicization of trans healthcare saying, “I think that medical decisions should be between medical providers and their families and not external political bodies and hate groups,” which was met with further applause from the audience.
While PAS opted to disregard the outcry against the panel, between the doctors supportive of trans youth outside the panel, the poor attendance of the panel, and the reactions to the disruptions of the panel, it was clear that the majority of doctors in attendance did not support the anti-trans rhetoric the panelists were trying to pass off as science.
“You can't have a debate when you're platforming an LGBT hate group,” said Barry Andres, a PTF member, in a press release regarding the protest. “Our picket isn't about silencing perspectives, it's about how this panel erodes the standard of care in a profession that keeps our community safe."
Valorie Van-Dieman (they/she) is an Associate Editor at Assigned Media. @valorievandieman.bsky.social