Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Clinic for Transgender Health is the latest trans health care provider to be targeted by right-wing activists.
On Monday evening, Matt Walsh, a conservative pundit and contributor to the The Daily Wire, released the results of what he called an “investigation” into the clinic to his over one million Twitter followers. Among other things, the Twitter thread claims that VUMC established the clinic in 2018 because gender-affirmation surgeries were very profitable, that the center threatened “consequences” for staff who refused to provide gender-affirmation care, and that it “enforces compliance ” from the parents. who may be reluctant to consent to care for their minor children.
In a statement released yesterday morning, Vanderbilt University Medical Center said Walsh’s social media posts “misrepresent the facts about the care the Medical Center provides to transgender patients.”
“VUMC started its Transgender Health Clinic because transgender individuals are a high-risk population for mental and physical health issues and are underserved by the US health care system,” the statement said. “We have been and will continue to be committed to providing family-centered care for all adolescents in accordance with state law and in accordance with professional practice standards and guidelines.”
Walsh’s posts have prompted calls for an investigation into the Nashville clinic by Republican state lawmakers in Tennessee, including Gov. Bill Lee.
Walsh has targeted a host of other trans health care providers in the past, particularly those providing care to trans youth. He has said that best medical practices for pediatric gender care are akin to “molestation and rape” and has called gender-confirming surgery “mutilation.”
In August, another right-wing social media figure, Chaya Raichik, who runs the controversial TikTok social media account Libs, targeted the Boston Children’s Hospital Center for Gender Surgery, making similar claims about the care of their gender-affirming pediatrics. As a result, BCH staff members have, for the past two months, received a barrage of harassment and death threats – and the hospital has been the target of a bomb threat.
Vanderbilt Clinic staff members contacted by Inside the High Ed declined to comment, as did a VUMC spokesman. But it appears the medical center has taken some proactive measures: As of Tuesday morning, it had taken down the transgender health clinic’s website.
