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Press Releases and Advisories

Northwestern experts can speak on issues facing LGBTQ+ communities

October 7, 2022
On the eve of National Coming Out Day, LGBTQ+ communities, allies and the lawmakers working for equality face a host of challenges to progress made in the last decade. Northwestern University faculty members are available to speak to media about efforts to protect marriage equality in the wake of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, “don’t say gay” in school bills, monkeypox, trans health care and more. Read the press release.

Texas abortion ban will likely ‘disproportionately impact trans and marginalized people’

October 5, 2022
A trans man living in Texas may choose to conceal his transgender status to coworkers, friends and even in-laws to protect himself from violence and gender dysphoria. As his abdomen grows due to a pregnancy for which he can no longer legally get an abortion, however, keeping identity private in public spaces may become next to impossible. The abortion ban in Texas imposes the burden of pregnancy — and with it, the burden of potential dysphoria, being outed or violence — on trans and gender nonconforming individuals without viable alternative choices. Read the media advisory. 

Age restriction lifted for gender-affirming surgery in new international guidelines

September 16, 2022
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) today today announced its updated Standards of Care and Ethical Guidelines for health professionals. Among the updates is a new suggestion to lift the age restriction for youth seeking gender-affirming surgical treatment, in comparison to previous suggestion of surgery at 17 or older. Alithia Zamantakis (she/her), a member of the Institute of Sexual & Gender Minority Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is available to speak to media about the new guidelines. Read the press release.

Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

June 24, 2022
A panel of Northwestern University experts convened a virtual news conference Friday, June 24, to offer their expertise on the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health organization that will dramatically re-shape the legal reality of abortion care in the United States. Read the press conference summary. 

Experts available on Roe v. Wade

June 15, 2022
Northwestern University scholars are available to discuss the medical, political and societal implications of the Supreme Court's decision related to Roe v. Wade, as well as the historical context of abortion rights in the United States. Read the media advisory. 

Monkeypox is ‘not an STD in the classic sense’

June 14, 2022
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is encouraging people to take extra precautions as monkeypox has been detected in over 1,000 people across 29 countries. Major LGBTQ organizations are warning their communities of a greater risk for exposure because of increased numbers of large gatherings during LGBTQ Pride month. But blaming gay men for spreading monkeypox will harm everyone, said Steven Thrasher, the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg chair of social justice reporting and a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. Read the press release.

Overturning Roe v. Wade would ‘increase the already rising U.S. maternal mortality rates’

May 3, 2022
Northwestern University experts on obstetrics and gynecology, health law and gender minority health are available for interviews on the U.S. Supreme Court’s potential overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Ricky Hill, PhD, research assistant professor at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Feinberg, provides expertise on gender minorities. Read the media advisory.

Anti-trans Texas order could spark violence, additional laws

March 1, 2022

Gov. Abbott’s order to investigate gender-affirming care as a form of child abuse goes against guidance from all relevant medical organizations and will cause serious damage ‘by the mere fact of the utterance,’ say Northwestern University experts. Northwestern experts explain how viewing gender-affirming treatments as child abuse could worsen depression among transgender youth, and why investigating LGBTQ families follows a similar vein heard across history. Read the press release.

'Kids' mental health suffering has become impossible to ignore'

December 8, 2021

The U.S. Surgeon General published a rare report Dec. 7 warning of a mental health crisis among young people caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More