Andrew Flores
Role at the time: Associate Professor of Government, American University
Condemned
Statement summary
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.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)HHS Issues False Report Linking Support For Gender Affirming Care With “Authoritarianism” And ViolenceTwo consecutive paragraphs quoting Andrew Flores, beginning "These are not scales that have ever been validated."
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)Why we used this label
Flores directly condemns the report's methodology as fabricated and unvalidated, a substantive rejection of its scientific credibility.