On December 4th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti—a case about the constitutionality of a 2023 Tennessee law banning healthcare providers from using puberty blockers or hormone therapy to affirm the gender of transgender minors. Access to gender-affirming care, which is supported by major medical associations in this country, is at stake. If the Tennessee ban is upheld by the Supreme Court or returned to a lower court, efforts to pass a national ban on gender-affirming care are likely to follow.

Join us on February 11th for a conversation with Alejandra Caraballo, Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School.

We will discuss the arguments presented in Skrmetti and the impact of the forthcoming Supreme Court decision on access to gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people.

This in-person event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

Project 2025’s Threat to LGBTQ Health

Dr. Sean Cahill, Director of Health Policy Research at Fenway Health, recently spoke at the Center.

We discussed Project 2025—a blueprint for a second Trump administration. In describing the adverse impacts on LGBTQ health, Dr. Cahill noted proposals to remove sexual orientation and gender identity from federal laws, including those that prohibit discrimination in healthcare, grants, and contracts.

LGBTQ Health Speed Mentoring

Students, staff, and postdoctoral fellows interested in LGBTQ health from across Harvard participated in a speed mentoring event at the Center with faculty, including Drs. Maggie McConnell, Vanessa McMahan, Natalie Slopen, Jarvis Chen, and Christy Denckla.

Dr. Landon Hughes highlighted strategies to understand LGBTQ health in the absence of self-reported information about sex, gender, and sexual orientation at the 2024 American Public Health Association meeting in Minneapolis.

“Administrative claims data,” he said, “are often underutilized and provide one way to understand the diagnoses and procedures that LGBTQ people are receiving in health settings.” 

During a webinar hosted by the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Brittany Charlton presented study findings about emerging ways to measure sex and gender in research settings.

She noted that without such innovations, it is "difficult to interpret when someone changes their gender identity over time on a survey. Changes may reflect identity shifts—like a new awareness of identity development or gender fluidity—but could also reflect an erroneous report."

Congratulations to two of the Center's postdoctoral fellows, Drs. Sarah McKetta and Payal Chakraborty, for each receiving a K99/R00 career development award from the National Institutes of Health. 

Dr. McKetta will develop novel measures of LGBQ-related structural stigma and reveal its role in alcohol use. 

Dr. Chakraborty will elucidate LGBQ-related disparities in unintended pregnancies, including the role of structural factors.