SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Palm Center Director Aaron Belkin released the following statement in response to today’s American Medical Association letter disputing the rationale for President Trump’s transgender ban.

“Today’s AMA statement that ‘there is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from military service’ underscores the expert consensus that transition-related care is reliable, safe and effective. Unfortunately, as the AMA points out, the Trump administration has ‘mischaracterized and rejected the wide body of peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness of transgender medical care.’ The rationale for the transgender ban has now been repudiated by the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and two former U.S. Surgeons General. The administration tried to reverse-engineer a rationale for the ban, but the President and the Defense Department are on the wrong side of science.”