In an age where headlines move faster than facts and misinformation is weaponized to incite outrage, the importance of high-quality, long-term scientific research on transgender health has never been more urgent. This is especially true when it comes to understanding the effects of puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on transgender youth, a subject that has become a political flashpoint recently.
Now, criticism is once again mounting, not against flawed science or unethical practices, but against the very act of studying transgender youth in the first place. Conservative commentators like Riley Gaines, Jen Sey, and outlets like OutKick are condemning a long-term study examining transgender adolescents’ physical development, allegedly funded in part by Nike. Their narrative paints the research as exploitative, dangerous, and even abusive.
But behind the inflammatory headlines and misleading soundbites is a truth worth protecting: that research into transgender health is not just appropriate, it is necessary. Because lives depend on it.
The Study in Question and the Real Story Behind It
The backlash centers around a multi-year study led by Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, a physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Along with researcher Joanna Harper and other experts in adolescent physiology, the study is designed to evaluate how transgender youth develop physically while undergoing gender-affirming treatment. The study includes fitness assessments before hormone therapy and follow-ups every six months over a five-year period.
According to reporting from The New York Times and confirmed by multiple public remarks from the researchers themselves, the study is supported in part by Nike. The goal? To gather data that can help guide athletic policy and inform medical best practices, not to “experiment” on children, as some critics claim.
That hasn’t stopped Gaines, Sey, and others from lobbing accusations of child abuse, comparing the research to unethical experiments, and drawing misleading parallels to past controversies like the Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney backlash. This inflammatory rhetoric obscures the reality. This study, and others like it, are essential to safeguarding the health, well-being, and inclusion of transgender people in sport and society.
Research Is Not Political. It’s Necessary.
Scientific research is not a culture war weapon. It is a method. A method we use to explore questions, test hypotheses, challenge assumptions, and build a better understanding of the world around us. The best research is conducted ethically, transparently, and rigorously. It includes oversight by medical boards, institutional review panels, and often, input from the very communities being studied.
The current study doesn’t aim to limit anyone or force transitions. It aims to answer complex, nuanced questions about how puberty suppression and HRT affect adolescent development in athletes. These are questions that policymakers, sports governing bodies, doctors, and families are already grappling with in the absence of data. And without data, decisions get made based on fear, not facts.
When critics like OutKick demand that companies “stay out of politics,” what they often mean is “stop supporting the rights of people we don’t like.” But supporting medical research into trans youth is not a political act. It is a public health responsibility.
What the Critics Won’t Say
Those attacking this research are not interested in better understanding transgender people. They are invested in erasing us from the conversation. Their goal is not to protect girls’ sports or children’s health. Their goal is to invalidate the identities of transgender people altogether by implying we are unnatural, deluded, or dangerous.
Take a moment to consider this. If these critics truly cared about young athletes, wouldn’t they support studying how to create fair and inclusive sporting environments for all youth? Wouldn’t they want more data, not less?
But time and again, we’ve seen this pattern. Any advancement in transgender rights, whether it’s access to healthcare, legal protections, or inclusive sports policy, is met with opposition fueled by fear, not evidence.
And now, we’re seeing that same fear turned toward the funding of research itself. But let’s be very clear. Questioning whether companies should support research into transgender youth is a dangerous path. If we start policing who gets to fund science, we risk letting misinformation, not medicine, dictate the future of healthcare.
The Human Impact of Gender-Affirming Research
Behind the headlines are real people. Trans kids, teens, and families are doing their best to survive in a world that often doesn’t want to understand them.
For these young people, access to puberty blockers or HRT is not a trend or a fad. It is life-saving care. Multiple studies have shown that gender-affirming medical treatment is associated with significantly lower rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in transgender youth.
But we need more than just outcome-based research. We need to understand how these interventions impact athletic performance, bone density, cardiovascular health, and long-term development. That’s where studies like the one involving Ackerman and Harper become so important.
Trans youth deserve the same standard of evidence-based care as anyone else. That means understanding what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve. That means investing in research.
Why Nike’s Alleged Support Matters
Let’s talk about Nike.
Much of the outrage directed at the company assumes a sinister motive: that Nike is funding research to manipulate sports policy or push harmful ideology. But if Nike is, in fact, funding this study, as Ackerman and Harper have suggested, it’s a move toward accountability, not agenda.
Nike is a company whose success depends on athletes. Supporting research that helps understand how trans athletes develop is in line with their broader mission of making sport accessible to all. It is also consistent with their public values around diversity, equity, and inclusion.
And frankly, more companies should follow suit.
Trans people are part of every customer base, including the billions spent on sportswear and wellness. Investing in research that can improve our lives isn’t a betrayal of sports. It is a commitment to fairness, health, and representation.
The Trump-Era Threat to Trans Health Research
We can’t discuss the urgency of this issue without acknowledging the broader political climate. The Trump administration and others like it have repeatedly sought to gut federal funding for research related to transgender health. That includes efforts to roll back National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, restrict Title IX protections, and ban gender-affirming care for minors in dozens of states.
When public funding dries up, private partnerships become even more critical. If Nike or other companies step in to fill that gap, they are not bypassing accountability. They are preserving a lifeline for research that is otherwise in danger of disappearing.
Without this research, doctors will have fewer tools to support their patients. Families will have fewer answers. Lawmakers will have fewer facts to inform policy. And trans kids will have fewer protections.
From Hysteria to Humanity
So what’s the takeaway?
The campaign against transgender youth is not just about policy. It is about perception. And right now, there are people whose careers are built on spreading fear and misinformation about transgender lives. They cloak their bigotry in buzzwords like “common sense” and “protecting children” while opposing the very research that could protect and support trans kids in the first place.
But here’s what they cannot undo. Transgender people exist. We are part of the human experience, and our health and our futures deserve to be studied with the same care, rigor, and respect as anyone else’s.
Science doesn’t ask whether you like someone. It asks how we can help them.
The Bottom Line
To our readers: we know the headlines are exhausting. We know that every week brings a new attack on your right to exist, to play, to thrive. But remember this. Behind the noise, there are doctors, researchers, and allies who believe in your worth. Who are fighting every day to ensure you get the care, recognition, and respect you deserve.
Studies like the one now under fire may not get splashy support from every corner of the media. But they represent something powerful. A future built not on fear, but on knowledge.
Let’s keep that door open. Let’s keep asking questions. Let’s keep funding answers. Because your story matters. And science should always reflect that.
