Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Tuesday sued three prominent medical associations for promoting “gender-affirming care” for minors, accusing them of misleading families on the drawbacks of gender-transition drugs and surgeries in violation of state law.
The lawsuit filed in the 19th Circuit Court in St. Lucie County brought claims under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and anti-racketeering statute against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the Endocrine Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“We believe these organizations failed to disclose the risks, limits and evidence when promoting so-called gender-affirming care for children,” said Mr. Uthmeier in a Tuesday video message.
He said the groups insisted for years that the recommendations were “settled science.”
“But behind closed doors, they knew the evidence was weak, they knew the outcomes uncertain and the risks very real. Parents were not told the full story,” he said. “In fact, some parents were told that if they didn’t put their kids through permanent, life-altering, sick procedures like double mastectomies and castrations, that their child would commit suicide.”
The WPATH guidelines on pediatric “gender-affirming care,” which have been largely mirrored by the association and academy, recommend puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries as treatments for gender dysphoria, saying they have been effective in reducing depression, anxiety and suicide risk.
The latest guidelines released in 2022, known as Standards of Care 8, or SOC-8, recommend puberty blockers no earlier than age 9, but have no age minimum on cross-sex hormones and gender-transition surgeries. The Endocrine Society does not recommend genital surgery until age 18.
“There has never been any credible evidence for any of these recommendations,” the complaint said. “However, by continuing to reference one another over an extended period of time, Defendants’ guidelines built a facade of legitimacy.”
The protocol’s validity came under attack as Republican-led states began passing laws in 2021 restricting gender-transition treatment for minors.
Scientific reviews of the evidence, led by Great Britain’s 2024 Cass Review, exposed the guidelines as “methodologically bankrupt,” the lawsuit said.
“Specifically, disinterested systematic reviews — the gold standard in evidence-based medicine — have determined that there is no credible evidence that puberty blockers are ’fully reversible’ or that sex interventions lead to positive mental health outcomes for children or adolescents,” said the lawsuit. “Thus, guidelines containing these representations cannot be properly characterized as ’evidence-based.’”
The guidelines took another hit last year with the publication of the “WPATH Files,” a cache of leaked internal documents and videos that suggest the organization is engaged in “improvising treatments” rather than evidence-based medicine, according to Environmental Progress, which released the files.
The documents, which were also obtained by Alabama officials during their legal fight over the state’s ban on pediatric gender-transition procedures, “reveal that WPATH’s representations about the development and rigor of the SOC-8 range from highly misleading to brazenly false,” said the Florida lawsuit.
WPATH was accused of putting politics ahead of medicine for removing age minimums for surgical procedures from SOC-8 under pressure from Biden Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine, who is transgender, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“The SOC-8 were shaped not only by activist attorneys, but also activists within the Biden administration,” the motion said.
The Washington Times has reached out to the three medical organizations for comment.
In 2023, @GovRonDeSantis signed legislation to ban so-called “gender-affirming care” for kids. Now it’s time for accountability!
Today, my office sued @wpath, @AmerAcadPeds, and @TheEndoSociety for mutilating kids and misleading families. pic.twitter.com/RrbIfYEFEq
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) December 9, 2025
The lawsuit asked the court to declare that the defendants’ representations about “gender-affirming care” constitute unfair trade practices, and impose a penalty of $10,000 for each false or misleading claim.
In addition, Mr. Uthmeier asked the court to rule that statements about the “efficacy and reversibility of pediatric sex interventions” constitute a pattern of racketeering, and fine each organization $1 million.
