Flores says the HHS report's scales have never been validated
Andrew FloresAssociate Professor of Government, American University
Andrew Flores, of American University and the Williams Institute, said the HHS report's scales had never been validated and that its authors "just made them up on their own." He described the design as "stacking the deck in favor of trying to find these correlations."
“These are not scales that have ever been validated. They just made them up on their own.”
Reporting
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Does the HHS report support linking gender-affirming guidance to authoritarianism and violence justification?
An HHS report released on August 26, 2026 reported correlations in an online survey between agreement with five selected gender-affirmation statements, left-wing-authoritarianism scores, and stated justification for specified political-violence scenarios. HHS says the study did not measure violent behavior or intent and cannot establish causation. Critics dispute whether its measures and framing support broader conclusions about gender-affirming guidance.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Erin in the Morning's report of Andrew Flores's remarks, from an interview with the outlet, published August 28, 2026. The Advocate's August 31 report quotes the same words and credits Erin in the Morning.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Reporting
About this source
The Advocate report repeating Andrew Flores's methodological criticism of the HHS report's scales, which it credits to an interview with Erin in the Morning.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Commenting on the HHS report's methodology in an interview with Erin in the Morning, as reported by The Advocate.
After the quotation
No further public follow-up had been reported as of this writing.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Flores directly condemns the report's methodology as fabricated and unvalidated, a substantive rejection of its scientific credibility.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Corrections to this statement
These notices document reporting corrections, classification changes, and topic-label updates.
Reporting correction
Correction to: Statement by Andrew Flores
- Previous language
- This statement quoted Andrew Flores as saying the HHS report's scales "were never validated... they just made them up," and described his remarks as comments to The Advocate.
- Corrected language
- This statement now quotes Flores as saying, "These are not scales that have ever been validated. They just made them up on their own." He made the remarks in an interview with Erin in the Morning, which published them on August 28, 2026. The Advocate reported them on August 31.
We put a shortened and reworded version of Flores's remarks inside quotation marks, so the words we showed were not his exact words. We also said he was commenting to The Advocate, when he gave the interview to Erin in the Morning and The Advocate repeated it. We have restored his exact words, corrected the outlet, and dated the statement to August 28, when Erin in the Morning published it, rather than August 31.
This corrects our account of what happened.
Erin in the Morning's report of Andrew Flores's remarks, from an interview with the outlet, published August 28, 2026. The Advocate's August 31 report quotes the same words and credits Erin in the Morning.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)The Advocate report repeating Andrew Flores's methodological criticism of the HHS report's scales, which it credits to an interview with Erin in the Morning.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)More from this case
Read the full caseWright and coauthors defend study with stated limits
“Our measures assessed endorsed justification for violence, not actually engaging in violence.”Read statement
Konnoth says the report's logic would brand any medical guidance "authoritarian"
“By that standard, any medical recommendation becomes 'authoritarian'.”Read statement
Aaron says the HHS report likely violates federal law
“It likely also violates federal law because it's not peer-reviewed”Read statement
Share or embed this statement
The embed keeps its attribution link to The Dispute Index. Credit the image to The Dispute Index and link to the statement page.
Cite this record
- Publisher
- The Dispute Index
- Title
- Flores says the HHS report's scales have never been validated
- First published
- Last updated
- Permalink
- https://disputeindex.com/events/881-andrew-flores-of-american-university-and-the-williams
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Flores says the HHS report's scales have never been validated". First published: 2026-09-17. Last updated: 2026-09-26. https://disputeindex.com/events/881-andrew-flores-of-american-university-and-the-williams