Colin Wright qualifies the HHS report’s language while defending its focus
Coauthor of the HHS report and Manhattan Institute fellow, as identified by The Guardian
“We probably could have tightened the language a little bit more.”
The full case
Does the HHS report support linking gender-affirming guidance to authoritarianism and violence justification?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
The Guardian reports an interview with Colin Wright, a coauthor of the HHS report. It attributes to him both a qualification about the report’s language and a continued dispute of the broader characterization that the report links support for trans people to authoritarianism or violence.
Before the quotation
The Guardian reports that Wright said the HHS publication appeared sooner than the authors expected because a draft had leaked, and that the researchers planned to release more survey information and submit the study to a journal.
After the quotation
The article reports that Wright disputed a broader linkage between support for trans people and authoritarianism or political violence, and instead described the study as concerning guidance offered by medical organizations.
How this statement is classified
The reported statement contains a specific qualification about the language alongside a continued defense of the study’s intended focus. It is therefore classified as mixed or conditional rather than as a withdrawal of the report’s conclusion.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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