Do you have concerns and complaints about transgender health care administered in your community?
If you live in Missouri, you can report details to your attorney general.
“Missouri now has a page where people can report trans individuals and the people who help them,” tweeted one user April 18, 2023.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey said March 23 he was launching the “Transgender Center Concerns Form,” which he described as a “tip line” on his office’s website. Bailey said the form stems from his office’s investigation into a St. Louis pediatric transgender center.
But the form’s wording is not limited to the previous investigation. It broadly invites any “complaint or concern about gender transition intervention,” that anyone has experienced or observed in the state.
Screenshot of online form where Missouri residents can submit concerns about “gender transition intervention.”
The form does not specifically ask people to report the names of transgender people or doctors administering care, but it does ask for “as much detail as possible.”
“We’ve received thousands of responses through our online portal,” Attorney General Press Secretary Madeline Sieren said in an email to PolitiFact. “We are in the process of sifting through them to determine where we need to take action.”
Sieren did not specify what kind of action could be taken based on the information provided in the form.
Activists online have issued calls to flood the website, which has been active for over a month, with false claims, gibberish or complaints.
The page received new attention after Bailey announced an emergency rule April 13 that restricts how providers in the state can administer gender-affirming care.
The rule requires that patients seeking gender-affirming medical care receive a year and a half of therapy and three consecutive years of “medically documented, long-lasting, persistent and intense” gender dysphoria. It also says that for people to qualify for “gender transition intervention,” they must have “treated and resolved” all symptoms from mental health issues. The emergency rule is slated to go into effect April 27.
The rule also restricts how providers administer care, track health records and follow up with patients. Any gender-affirming care that violates the rule’s provisions would be considered “an unfair, deceptive, fraudulent, or otherwise unlawful practice,” according to the emergency rule, although no penalty was specified.
Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers are pushing legislation that, if passed, would outlaw certain kinds of gender-affirming care in the state.
It remains unclear whether information submitted through the attorney general’s portal could be used to identify trans people and their providers but online social media users worry it would be.
Our ruling
A tweet said Missouri’s attorney general launched a website “where people can report trans individuals and the people who help them.”
The attorney general’s office launched an online form on which people can submit complaints and concerns about “gender transition intervention.” The form does not specifically ask people to report the names of transgender people or doctors administering care, but it does ask for “as much detail as possible.”
When it was announced, Bailey said the form related to an investigation into complaints about a specific St. Louis pediatric transgender center. Though social media users have speculated that the submitted information could be used more broadly to identify trans people and their providers, it remains unclear if that will happen.
The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. We rate this claim Mostly True.
