A new perspective published in The New England Journal of Medicine addresses the battle against false information affecting LGBTQIA+ health education in the United States. The perspective’s narrative begins with a voicemail left at The Fenway Institute’s National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center in Boston marked the beginning of a harrowing journey into the world of health disinformation. This incident triggered a chain of events that exposed the disturbing capacity of a health disinformation machine, which threatens LGBTQIA+ individuals, healthcare professionals, educators, and institutions.
Alex Keuroghlian, Director of Education and Training Programs at The Fenway Institute, wrote that the incident revolved around a course at Harvard Medical School titled “Caring for patients with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and sex development: a clinical and scholarly elective.” After six peaceful years without resistance or objections, the course came under fire. College Fix, a conservative leaning online outlet, published an article alleging that Harvard was teaching students to care for LGBTQIA+ “infants.” The narrative quickly spread through various media outlets, including Fox News and the Daily Mail, causing a social media frenzy. Even Donald Trump Jr. joined in, criticizing the course and spreading disinformation.
The ability to withstand and counter this health disinformation campaign hinged on key factors, including principled support for academic freedom, commitment from funders, strategic guidance from LGBTQIA+ community organizations, responsive security services, diligent fact-checking by journalists, and social media platforms’ policies against disinformation.
Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with LGBTQIA+ rights organization GLAAD, issued a statement explaining that the course focused on physical variations in sex development, not gender identity or sexual orientation in infants. Despite this clarification, many media outlets still did not retract or correct their false reports.
As the disinformation campaign escalated, a journalist from The Associated Press Fact Check team stepped in to investigate the course’s content. They debunked the claim that the course trained students to treat transgender infants and emphasized the distinction between transgender and intersex concepts, terminology, and medical needs. After the fact-checked article was released, other reputable news organizations, such as USA Today and Reuters, published similar content that helped slow the spread of misinformation.
While Keuroghlian and other course leaders emerged from this ordeal with their personal safety, jobs, and curriculum intact, many LGBTQIA+ individuals continue to face threats to medically necessary care due to escalating health disinformation. Countering this harm requires coordinated efforts involving subject-matter experts, institutions, and media leaders to ensure information integrity and protect the truth on which patients’ lives depend.
The full perspective can be read in the September 30 New England Journal of Medicine (subscription required).